Raikiri no Yume
by jaderaid
Summary: An inexplicable attack on a Konoha Jounin by a Cloud ninja leaves little choice but to assume a preemptive strike for war. As the Cloud claims the attack the work of a rogue-nin, Hyuuga Neji and Tenten are sent to uncover the truth. :between eps. 220-221:
1. Prelude – Eki no Inu Kau

_Raikiri no Yume_

_--Lightning Blade Dream--_

_by Jade Rhade_

Prelude – _Eki no Inu Kau_

--To Feed the Dogs of War --

"_Tch." Genma adjusted his toothpick with his teeth, gazing up as the sky lightened from a deep indigo to a blood red. "That's ominous. What's the saying about red skies in the morning?"_

_His companion shrugged. "How should I know, Genma-san?" she questioned, nervously dropping a hand to her shuriken holster as a bird cawed and took flight overhead._

_Her action was not unnoticed. Genma grinned and shook his head regretfully. This is what happens when Hokage-sama starts assigning rookie Chuunin to border patrol. The fact remained, however, that there was little other choice. Even now, almost three years since that disastrous Chuunin Exam (the one for which he had proctored the final exam, to his eternal dismay), Konoha still had barely enough shinobi to keep the land secure from invasion. Jounin were more in demand than ever as requests for high-profile missions continued to pour in, and ANBU always had something going on... leaving the border patrol stretched thin._

_The former Chuunin examiner put a hand on the kunoichi's shoulder. "Don't jump at every small noise," he cautioned. "You'll tire yourself out."_

"_H...hai," she agreed. Her hand, however, remained in place._

"_Tch." Genma bit down on the toothpick. Her nervousness was going to infect him if he wasn't careful. Damn rookie. "What's your name, anyway?"_

"_Yume, sir."_

_"I want you to check one hundred meters in each direction, Yume-kun," he told her. That would get her off his back, at least for half an hour. "Come back immediately if you see anything suspicious."_

_Her eyes widened. "But sir, what counts as suspicious?"_

"_What are you, a Genin? Tch." Genma shook his head with frustration. "You passed your Chuunin exams somehow, didn't you? I'm sure you'll know if you see it."_

_"Y-yes sir," she managed, jumping straight up into the air and disappearing to the north._

_Genma sighed and pressed his fingertips to his forehead. It was going to be a long week until he was relieved. Something about that girl... he'd never seen her before; and distinctive indigo eyes like hers would be hard to forget. Once he returned to the village, he'd check her background, but until then he rested his back against the tree and began composing a few lines of poetry in his mind._

_blood red skies above_

_keeps the young from peaceful sleep_

_my path..._

_He sighed, sensing a presence behind him. "Back already? What did you-"_

_...my path leads to death_

-xXx-

_Bright sunlight streamed through the leaves and branches, lending the forest a serene, still air. All was silent but for the sudden crackle of a leapt-upon branch._

"_Yahoo!" Inuzuka Kiba cheered, briefly flying through the air before landing again. "Early morning run, right Akamaru?"_

_  
Easily keeping pace beside him, his ninja dog and constant companion, the snowy white dog Akamaru barked once in resounding agreement. They'd already left the rest of their team behind; they'd wait for them at the border, sure enough, but early morning runs were the best. The impulsive youth sniffed the air and twisted around in midair to face back the way he had come. Akamaru had already halted and was sniffing more intently._

"_What is it, Akamaru?" Kiba landed nimbly on the branch, only then noticing the silence of the forest. A silence that was far too deep- not a bird nor beast stirred._

_Nearly two meters from snout to tail, Akamaru whined unhappily, then jumped from the branch to the ground and bounded off to the east._

_Kiba was quick to follow. "What is it?" He skidded to a stop as a smell hit his sensitive nose like a blow. "Wha-"_

_The sweet iron smell of fresh spilt blood made him gag as he entered the small clearing, the sight of the precious fluid only then registering in his vision, smeared over the trees and the rocks, soaked into the soil beneath his feet, a devilish mire sucking at his shoes. "What happened here?" Kiba covered his nose and crossed to the far side of the clearing, where Akamaru pawed at something in the bushes._

_The dog, white fur now streaked with red, bit down on a piece of navy blue cloth and tugged. "This is a Konoha ninja!" Kiba exclaimed, dropping to his knees and pulling the body from the brush. The man's breathing was faint, but it was there. "Akamaru, go get one of the guys patrolling the border. There's got to be at least one somewhere near us." He frantically dug through his pack and yanked out a scroll, scribbling a brief note on the inside and handing it to the dog. "Bring them here, go!"_

_Akamaru chomped down on the scroll and vanished, winding his way through the trees like a white shadow._

_Kiba shivered as he gazed around the clearing. "What kind of weapon could have done this?" he murmured, staring at the gashes covering the Jounin's body. And his eyes narrowed. There was something clutched in the Konoha shinobi's hand. The younger man gently opened his fist and, as if struck by a bolt, dropped the hand and lunged to his feet._

_"Hurry, Akamaru!"_

-xXx-

_Sarutobi-sensei. Not a day has passed that I haven't marveled at your influence in this village. _Tsunade stood at the bay window of her office, hands clasped behind her back, watching a shadow fall over her village from the clouds obscuring the sun above. _Sometimes, though, your mistakes and misjudgments come back to bite me._ She sighed and turned, picking up a simple piece of cloth, recovered by Inuzuka Kiba- a cloth heavy with the weight of impending war.

A single finger-less glove, the type commonly worn by _shinobi_. A glove which, on the knuckles, was emblazoned the mark of the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

"Genma-_san_ has no memory of the fight he must have had," Shizune said softly, eyes on the glove. "And it will be some time before he's conscious enough to respond to ANBU's interrogation methods."

"Of course," Tsunade agreed, clenching her fist around the navy-blue cloth. "That would be too easy."

Beside the glove lay a letter, recently arrived- this morning, actually- by carrier pigeon from the Village Hidden in the Clouds. In eloquent words, it warned of a rogue ninja turned serial killer last seen approaching the Land of Fire. A pleasant method of denying any possible involvement. However...

"Relations have never been good between Konoha and the Village in the Clouds." Tsunade dropped heavily into her seat and laid her head on the table, letter in one hand, glove in the other. "This could be an innocent case of a murderous rogue ninja, or it could be a prelude to invasion."

"And don't forget their interest in the _Byakugan_," Shizune added. She flinched as Tsunade turned a glare to her.

"How would I forget something like that?" she snapped angrily. "Now be quiet, I have to think." Tsunade steepled her fingers and rested her chin upon them. "Shizune," she said finally. "How many _Jounin_ are available?"

"Uhh..." the less-imposing woman dug through the paperwork littering the desk until she found the list. "Right now... one."

"That's all? One?"

"_Hai_. Hyuuga Neji."

Tsunade's hand slipped and slammed against the desk. "Absolutely not!" The impact jarred the precarious stack of papers, sending them cascading through the air like a papery rainstorm.

Shizune jumped and tried to catch some of the wayward sheets. "But... he's the only one available," she protested weakly.

"It's impossible that there's only one _Jounin_ not currently assigned to a mission." Her eyelid twitched with the effort of remaining calm. "Where is everyone?"

She gulped. "Well... we've had a lot of requests for high-profile missions lately... and we've just had the graduates from the Academy get assigned... There are a whole bunch of _Chuunin_ available, though!" she added hastily at the sight of the mounting storm crossing the Hokage's face.

"I don't want to give _Chuunin_ something this sensitive." Tsunade pressed her fingertips to her forehead and sighed.

"Why not Neji-_kun_?" Shizune ventured.

Her head snapped up. "Because I'd rather the _Byakugan _be nowhere near those damned Cloud ninja!" Tsunade massaged her temples wearily. "Send for Neji," she conceded finally. "If I remember correctly, only one member of his team is currently in Konoha?"

Shizune checked the paper in her hand. "_Hai_, the _kunoichi_ Tenten. Lee-_kun_ is with Gai-_san_ on a mission."

"Send for her, then, too."

The other woman bowed and exited, leaving the Hokage alone. A rather ominous sign, Tsunade realized with horrifying abruptness.

In the flurry of papers that had flown through the air, the letter promising peace had disappeared.

**A/N: Please don't post any spoilers for _Shippuuden_ beyond episode 30 or so in reviews. Thank you for your consideration.**

**--Jade**


	2. Ichi – Kage Aogitateru

**A/N: Since I didn't do this at the beginning of the first post, I'd like to dedicate this story to i AM the Random Idiot and DPWolf for giving me several swift kicks in the ass to get me writing again. Also dedicated DPWolf and to my boyfriend for getting me hooked on ****Naruto**** in the first place. ****_Arigato gozaimasu._**

**Disclaimer: **I'm just playing in Masashi Kishimoto's playground.

_Ichi – Kage Aogitateru_

--One – To Fan the Shadows--

Tenten raised the bamboo drinking-vessel to her lips, watching her comrade of three years over the rim. The moon was full, and its rays, albeit faint from the constant cloud cover of this country, and the crackling embers of their small fire illuminated Hyuuga Neji's face. Even in rest, the distress on his face from this mission was clear; maybe even more so, as he was not trying to hide it. She glanced up, searching in vain for a single star through the sickly clouds and shivering as a chill breeze swept over the Land of Lightning. Winter was upon them.

_"Hokage-sama." Neji kept his gaze deferentially two inches above her head. "With all due respect, I must refuse this mission."_

_"What?!" Tsunade's eyes flashed. "Perhaps I somehow gave you the impression that this was a request?"_

_The strongest wielder of the Byakugan bowed low. "I'm afraid I will not be able to remain impartial," he explained in his soft-spoken, infinitely practical way. "I do not want to compromise the mission due to my personal feelings."_

_"Neji..." Tenten frowned unhappily. Neither Tsunade-sama nor Shizune-san noticed, but she did; Neji's hands were trembling slightly with emotion, and she could only wonder what paths his mind was taking._

_"Be that as it may, you are the only Jounin available." The Hokage was audibly trying to restrain her temper._

_"With respect," Neji didn't rise from his bow, "there are several Chuunin equally qualified to take this mission." He finally raised his head. "Nara Shikamaru, for one, as are-"_

_"No!" Tsunade slammed both hands on the table, and Tenten jumped at the harsh sound. "We are on the brink of war- we don't have time for your petty issues," she snarled. "You are the only available Jounin, you possess the power of Byakugan, and you will accept this mission!"_

_Tenten flinched as an ugly look passed his normally impassive face for the briefest of seconds, then it was gone. "As you command, Hokage-sama!" he hissed, the honorific falling from his lips like a curse. He bowed sharply and spun on his heel, white robes flapping as he didn't slam, but silently let the door click shut behind him._

_"Tenten!" She flinched and turned to face the Hokage of Konoha._

_"H-" Tenten cleared her throat. "Hai, Hokage-sama?"_

_Tsunade sighed and rested her chin on her steepled fingers, eyes analyzing the young woman. "Keep an eye on him," she said softly. "His history with that land may indeed cloud his judgement, but the fact remains that he has the eyes of insight this mission needs." Without looking, she wearily waved a hand. "Dismissed."_

_Tenten bowed and exited, carefully closing the door behind her and exhaling. "Are you all right?" she asked without removing her hand from the knob._

_"Of course I am," came the answer. Arms crossed, Neji leaned casually against the wall to her left, eyes closed and face calm. "Don't tell me you were fooled by the performance in there." He uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall, milk-white eyes snapping open. "It's common sense. A diplomatic mission such as this should not contain someone as emotionally attached as I am."_

_Performance? Tenten found herself wondering at his sincerity. "Be that as it may," she fell into step beside him as the pair walked down the dimly lit hall, "Hokage-sama is going to be angry at you."_

_He shrugged, an almost imperceptible movement. "Let her be. It was necessary to infuriate her in an attempt to remove me from the mission." He shrugged again. "Still, I failed, so how long will it take you to get your things ready?"_

_She blinked at the abrupt change of topic and ran through a quick inventory in her mind. "No more than twenty minutes, I guess."_

_"Meet me by the front gate in twenty minutes, then."_

_"Hai, wakarimashita." I understand. She stopped and let him go ahead, concern visible only in her eyes. "Neji..."_

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Tenten started; while she had been thinking and staring off into space, his milk-white eyes had opened and captured her gaze.

"Are you okay?" Neji repeated. "If you're tired on watch, you should have woken me."

"I'm not tired. I was just thinking." She threw her blankets over her body. "Still, since you're up, you can take watch."

"Hm. Are our pursuers still following?"

"Hai. They stopped when we did." She snuggled deeper in her bedroll to escape the incessant chill of the land, turning her face toward the fire. Before she closed her eyes, she studied his face carefully. The earlier unrest had disappeared, and his face had smoothed into its customary impassiveness. Whether gone or simply deeply buried, she couldn't tell.

-xXx-

"Someone's coming," Tenten hissed. Several days had passed, and they were finally nearing the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

Neji snapped his dark glasses over his eyes to mask his distinctive _Kekkei Genkai_ and pressed his back to hers. "_Byakugan_," he murmured, activating that much-sought-after _doujutsu_. "One from in front of me," he stated, shifting his gaze. "One from my left. One from my right. One from in front of you."

"Four, then." Tenten kept a hand on her weapons-summoning scroll, eyes daring in an attempt to find the ones approaching her.

Neji focused on the forehead protectors. "They're definitely Cloud ninja."

"Probably the four who've been following us since the border," Tenten shifted as she caught a glimpse of navy-blue. "They've finally come to say hello."

"So it would seem." Neji kept his hands at his sides rather than in ready-position for _Juuken_, the Gentle Fist. _This is ridiculous_, passed through his mind. _I'm the worst possible choice for this mission. I'm emotionally attached, have a distinctive identifying trait (that's wanted by every ninja in this village, don't forget), and my fighting style is just as recognizable. I've developed Juuken and not many of my other skills._ Inside, he berated himself. _That's what you get for focusing too hard on one talent and being caught up on being a genius._

Tenten bumped him with her shoulder. "Hey," she cautioned. "Try not to look so tense."

"I don't look tense."

"Your face might not, but your body language gives it away."

And suddenly they were there; four of them, as Neji had seen. But...

"Hey! You! With the stupid glasses!" A young man with a shock of bright red hair, perhaps only a year or two younger than Neji himself, jabbed his finger in the _Jounin_'s face. "What's your business here?!"

Neji only stared at the finger, partially in anger, mostly in disbelief. Who does this kid think he is, Naruto?

"Itatsu," the teenage female to Neji's left sighed. "I apologize for him, but you two... you're from Konoha, right?" Deep indigo eyes studied them carefully through blue-black bangs of short-cropped hair. "According to the treaty between-"

"We're here by invitation," Tenten cut her off impatiently, extending a two pieces of paper. One was the letter sent by the Land of Lightning; the other was written by the Hokage.

A middle-aged man, easily the oldest and probably their _sensei_, took the papers from her hand and perused them both carefully for several minutes. "So," after an eternity, "you've been sent by Tsunade-_hime_ to help us catch the rogue-nin."

"That is correct." Without moving his head, Neji observed the man from the corner of his eye. "One of our shinobi was critically wounded by your rogue-nin. We've come to capture or kill the perpetrator."

"Hmm." He nodded slowly. "I suppose I can understand Konoha's reasoning. However," his tone chilled, "you realize I must speak to Raikage-_sama_ before you proceed any further."

"Of course," Neji agreed, inclining his head slightly. "The Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Village Hidden in the Clouds have come to agreements before," his voice laced thick with irony.

The red-haired boy Itatsu stared, doubtlessly trying to pick his way through the layers of that sentence, but the _Jounin_ only nodded. "Indeed," he responded neutrally. "I'll leave these three with you, then. Please stay here."

"I understa-"

"No way, _Sensei_!" Predictably, Itatsu glared and protested. "An excellent ninja like me shouldn't have to baby-sit some stupid diplomats!"

"Are you trying to cause a diplomatic incident?" the girl hissed, eyes wide. "Shut up already, Itatsu!"

"Fine," he sulked. Any of his arguments were useless now, anyway; the _Jounin_ had already disappeared in the commotion.

"Now look, Itatsu," she continued. "Be nice to the ambassadors. They probably don't have any ninja skills worth speaking of, but they can probably summon a whole bunch of really powerful ninja to get us all."

Again, Tenten and Neji could only stare. They glanced at each other in unspoken signal and knelt on the ground, still back-to-back. "We'll wait here for your _sensei_ to return," Neji stated, hoping they wouldn't keep speaking.

Tenten leaned back so her face was by his ear. "It's like a team full of Narutos," she whispered. "Is this for real?"

He closed his eyes shrugged against her back, an almost imperceptible movement.

"Is this your first time in the Land of Lightning?" His eyes snapped open again to see indigo orbs only a few tens of centimeters from his own. "It's too bad you came during the winter," the girl continued cheerfully. "When it's warmer, everything's really pretty."

His head almost collided with Tenten's, he pulled back so fast. "That's... nice," he managed. He felt the telltale tremor of his _kunoichi_ partner trying to restrain laughter.

"Isn't it though?" She smiled, evidently not noticing the look of utter disdain Neji was giving her. "My name's Yumiko, by the way, what's yours?

"Yumiko," the final member of their team finally spoke. "Don't pester the _shinobi_." Silent since their appearance, this boy looked younger than the other two. Grey eyes blinked once, and he pushed matching shoulder-length hair away from his face. "It's impolite, wouldn't you agree?" He paused. "Neji-_san_. Tenten-_san_."

Both Neji and Tenten's eyes narrowed in surprise, but they weren't the only ones.

"You know them, Shuya?" Yumiko questioned, standing with a curious expression.

"Their names were on the paper she gave _sensei_," he pointed out coolly.

"You're very observant," Tenten noted, eyes narrowing further. "For a _Genin_, that is."

Shuya's face clouded, then cleared in understanding. "Ah. Judging from my companions, I can see why you would jump to that conclusion, Tenten-_san_. In actuality, only those two," he jutted his chin at Yumiko and Itatsu, "are the _Genin_ here. As for me, Tenten-_san_, I am a _Chuunin_."

"Really." Neji didn't turn. "I don't recall your face at any of the exams."

Shuya didn't seem fazed. "It must have been one of the exams you didn't attend, Neji-_san_." He took several steps backward and leaned against a tree, bare-leafed and dry. "Since I don't recall your face either. Neji­­-_san_."

It was too much for Itatsu not to butt in. "Well, I'm a face neither of you will be forgetting!" he broke in. "Just you all wait, I'm gonna catch the rogue-nin before you Konoha losers even get the chance to draw a single _kunai_!"

"I-ta-tsu..." Yumiko growled warningly. "Shut your stupid mouth before I rip your lips off."

Itatsu all but cowered. "_H_-_hai_..."

"Good!" She smiled happily, again all cheer. "I'm sure we'll all be good allies."

Again, all Tenten and Neji could do was stare.

**Thanks to ****whitepheonix13**** and ****Melodramatic**** for their reviews of the prelude; according to my stats page, there are at least 20 of you who read without reviewing. To ensure the continuance of this story, please review.**

**--Jade**


	3. Ni – Yami Norikiru

_Ni – Yami Norikiru_

--Two – To Sail the Darkness--

Tenten pressed her ear against the wood door and waited for the footsteps to fade away before gesturing to Neji. He nodded once in response and activated the his _Byakugan_, still masked by the eyeglasses to all but the most intent of viewers, to survey the room. Spartan in appearance, it held all the functionality one would expect of guest quarters in a _shinobi_ village. One room with a bed, one bathroom, one sliding glass window leading to a balcony of wood, and one plain wooden dresser for clothes with a mirror.

As he searched the room with his Chakra, Tenten searched more conventionally herself, combing through the sheets and spare blankets neatly folded on the floor beside the bed and lifting the mattress to peer underneath, checking the folds of the curtains and all through the bathroom. So intent was her hunt that she started with surprise as Neji crouched beside her and tapped her shoulder, then tapped his ear twice and pointed to a landscape hung to the right of the bed.

She nodded once in confirmation and padded to the wall to remove the framed maelstrom, revealing a listening device secreted into a small groove in the wall itself. _Remove it?_ she mouthed, tilting her head to one side.

He shook his head and gestured for her to come closer to him. Lips against her ear, he murmured, "it's the only one in the room. The type is not very sensitive and there aren't any cameras. There's just the one bug."

"You're sure we shouldn't take it out?" she whispered back, chocolate brown meeting milk white. "We could probably muffle it no problem."

Neji shook his head again, lose strands of his dark hair brushing her face. "They'll think we have something to hide and put in a more sensitive one."

"Got it," she nodded and silently moved back to replace the picture.

"Not very talkative, are you?" she asked, voice suddenly loud in what had before been almost complete silence.

Neji's head tilted in puzzlement until she pointed to the device. "I guess I'm still tired from the journey," he replied after a moment's pause.

Tenten grinned and nodded. _Nice catch_, she mouthed. "Me too. We should probably get some rest until the Raikage decides that he wants to see us," she continued for the benefit of the bug.

"Good idea," he pulled the glasses off and rolled his eyes at the charade.

"It's kind of childish they only gave us one bed, though."

He smirked. "They're trying to make us uncomfortable around each other. Remember that lesson from the Academy?"

"They must not know we've been teammates for almost five years," she laughed. "That kind of childish stupidity won't work."

"Give them credit for trying," Neji dropped his bag to the floor and pulled out a blank scroll and a brush, then began rummaging for ink.

Tenten tapped her foot on the floor to get his attention and waved her own inkbottle. She jumped on the bed and tucked her bare feet under her like a cat. "It's comfortable, though," she conceded. "I think I'll take a nap."

"Alright. I'm just going to check through my equipment."

"Do that later," she waved a hand in dismissal. "We could be summoned at any time, remember."

"_Hai, hai_," Neji sighed and tossed her the scroll and brush. "I guess that makes sense."

She uncapped the bottle and drew in big letters: _THIS IS RIDICULOUS_.

He nodded and shrugged, setting his glasses down on the dresser opposite the bed then sitting to her left. _What do you want me to do about it?_ he inscribed.

She made a face and mimicked his shrug. _Where'd you get the glasses?_

"Aburame Shino," he murmured. _They're just tinted glass._

_What's our plan?_

_We'll probably end up working with those idiot Genin,_ he wrote.

Tenten shook her head. _The one's smart_. _Yumiko and Itatsu are idiots, but Shuya is definitely __my type_, she underlined the words for emphasis.

"I thought black hair and dark eyes was your type?"

She made a sheepish face. "That was before that cute _daimyo_ in the Land of Birds turned out to be a woman."

"Ah."

_Regardless, we should watch him_, she wrote, referring back to her earlier written statement. _I don't know if he's lying about being a Chuunin, but he's very smart, very observant. Reminds me of a cute, motivated Shikamaru._

Neji raised an eyebrow. _I don't trust any of them_, he underlined his own words.

She thought about it, then shrugged in agreement. _Do you really think it's a rogue-nin like they say, or do you think Tsunade-sama's correct?_

_Yes,_ he wrote quickly, brush flowing across the page in his right hand as he deftly used his left to spread the scroll out further. Characters flowed into each other in a steady stream of words. _There is definitely a rogue-nin, but it depends upon what you consider to be truly "rogue". _He held up a hand to forestall the question in her eyes. _Think about it. If this guy was really that dangerous, they would have stopped us sooner, at least to deliver warning. Where's their ANBU?_ He raised both eyebrows. _And think about this: why would a Cloud ninja run all the way to the Land of Fire, injure one ninja, then return to the Land of Lightning? The trackers confirmed that he came back to this land. Why not stay in the Land of Fire? Why? Unless he were under orders._

He offered the brush, but Tenten shook her head and chewed a thumbnail in thought. _That makes sense_, she wrote after finally taking the brush. _It would explain the lack of pursuit teams near our borders to track him down._ She paused, tapping the brush against her teeth. _What should we do?_

This time, Neji didn't immediately take the brush. "Wait until we meet with the Raikage," he muttered. "That's all we can do." He rolled up the scroll, regardless of the still-wet ink and tossed it into his pack without moving.

"Okay." She pushed off the bed and headed to the bathroom to clean the brush. As he said, they couldn't really do anything without the consent of the village's _Kage_.

-xXx-

"Konoha fools." Yumiko ran her fingers through her short locks with a contemptuous grin. "They couldn't even find the one listening device." She shook her head to ruffle her hair before leaning on the back of a wheeled chair.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you." In the chair, Itatsu was dropping his contact lenses into solution by the light of a single candle in an otherwise empty room. "They probably did find it." He slid clear, round eyeglasses over his eyes and turned, throwing his partner off balance. "We can't assume anything were the Hyuuga clan is concerned."

She caught herself before falling to the floor, taking a few steps back. "Are you sure it's him?" her voice was doubtful. "I don't think-"

"You don't have to," Itatsu cut her off roughly, pushing his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose and standing. "Don't forget, it's by my word that you are in this coalition. I can just as easily remove you." He lifted the edge of the heavy black drapery shrouding the window and squinted into the sun.

"Not anymore, Itatsu," she breathed in his ear, elbows on his shoulders. "You kick me out, and I reveal your oh-so-clever plan to our prey." Indigo eyes widened with sadistic pleasure as she watched an ugly look cross the boy's face. She took the curtain and deliberately dropped it. "I'm in too deep to get rid of me now."

Then her satisfaction was gone along with her breath as she was slammed against the opposite wall. "Is that so, _Yume_?" Itatsu whispered in the same tone, right hand clenched around her throat. "As I remember, upon whose hands does the blood of our enemies rest?"

She tried to form a seal, but Itatsu grabbed her right hand in his left, ignoring her struggles as if they were nothing. "That's right, I remember now," he continued, mouth to her ear. Saliva bubbled through her lips as she choked. "That would be you, _Yume_ my friend." He closed his eyes and smiled, breathing deep as if to mock her. "That's right, you're starting to black out. I can feel your weakness mounting as oxygen is cut off from your brain.

"Asphyxiation is a horrible way to die, you know," her right hand fell limp as he released it. Only her eyes, no longer wide in pleasure but now in fear, could move. Itatsu stroked the side of her face gently, watching her with mild interest. "Never forget, my friend, that the mask I present is not me."

His grip sprang open, and Yumiko collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud. Coughs racked her slender body, blood splattering the wood as she drew in a ragged breath.

"If you truly want revenge on the Hyuuga," Itatsu had turned away and was back at the window as she finally could rise to her knees. "You'll remember whom not to cross."

Hand on her throat, Yumiko nodded weakly. Instead of hating the boy before her, she transferred her hate to its rightful place, to those who had caused her suffering.

The Hyuuga Clan.

**A/N: **_**Arigato gozaimashita **_**to my two reviewers, **_**i AM the Random Idiot**_** and **_**whitepheonix13**_**. As with the last chapter, there were about twenty of you who read without reviewing. Isn't that kind of rude?**

**- Jade -**


	4. San – Ikiohikitoru

**A/N: As much as I hate to put an author's note before a chapter, allow me to give a bit of a glossary for some of the terms I use in this chapter:**

_**kata**__**: term used to describe the rehearsed moves of a martial art (translation: **_**form**

_**kodachi**__**: medium-length sword, shorter than a katana**_

_San – Ikiohikitoru (Sayonara)_

--Three – To Breathe One's Last (_Sayonara_)--

Her swords gleamed in the moonlight as she forced her muscles through the endless routine. So familiar had this _kata_ become that she executed the form to flawless perfection with her eyes closed. The blades, twin _kodachi_ perfectly balanced, sliced through the air without a whisper, weaving into complex patterns of steel. Bare feet danced lightly against the ground as she spun and dove, defending herself against enemies only existing in her mind. Enemies shrouded in darkness, faceless but for eyes like burning pearls.

Even as clouds covered the moon and the light dimmed atop the dark mountain as the first flakes of snow softly covered the ground, the _kodachi_ darted and bit, slender and supple as snakes. She abandoned the cold, precise dance of the _kata_ and sprang to the offensive against her imagined foe. Sweat flew like rain and crystallized on the ground like frozen teardrops as she ducked and whirled, sweeping her foot into a vicious kick, left blade stabbing into the dirt to finish one of them while the right worked independently to fend off imagined attackers.

Through it all, those eyes haunted her mind and hunted her soul, those unholy pearls gleaming from a sea of darkness.

The rogue-_nin_ must strike again.

-xXx-

"Neji!" Tenten pressed her nose against the window. "_Yukie desu_!"

He emerged from the bathroom, wiping his hands with a towel. "What?"

"It's snowing!" she repeated excitedly, voice nasally from her nose against the glass. "Isn't it pretty?"

"And cold, and wet, and hard to hide in..." Neji pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"True." She lifted on shoulder in a resigned shrug but didn't move away. "Still, it's nice to look at."

"I suppose so," he crossed his arms and leaned his head on the chilled glass with a sigh. "Rude of them, isn't it?" he murmured, breath fogging the glass as he gazed into the streetlight-lit night.

"To keep us waiting so long?" Tenten shrugged again, eyes still lit by girlish wonder at the sight of snow. "Seems to be, but we don't know what kind of politics are at work here."

"Yes." A puff of fog against the glass was the only indication of his silent sigh. Snow fell peacefully outside, and he was struck by a sudden desire to drive his fist through the glass and shatter this too-quiet world, so strong that his fist clenched before he even realized.

"Hey." Concerned, Tenten put a hand on his arm. "You okay?"

"You keep asking me that," irritated, he stepped back so her hand fell. "Of course I'm fine."

"Neji..."

Both spun as one toward the door, then, sensing a presence before the knock sounded. He glanced at Tenten and received a nod in return. With quick strides, he grabbed the glasses to shade his eyes before opening the door.

"Ah, Neji-_san_." Shuya had pulled his grey hair back in a loose braid and was cradling a white bundle. "May I enter?"

"Of course." Neji stepped aside and closed the door behind him. "I take it the Raikage is finally summoning us?"

"Unfortunately, no." The younger boy dropped the bundle of cloth on the bed. "Raikage-_sama_ has been engaged in important business since this morning, Neji-_san_." He nodded a greeting to Tenten. "So I was told to show you around the village, if you would like."

"That's a great idea," Tenten put in with a smile.

Neji nodded, more from consideration for her than any real desire to venture outside.

"Here, put these on, then." Shuya untied the bundle and tossed them each a fur-lined white cloak. "As I'm sure you noticed, night comes early this time of year. It gets below freezing quickly."

"Thank you," Tenten answered for both of them, tossing it over her shoulders.

Neji made no move to don the cloak. "Where are the other two?" Tenten glared over Shuya's shoulder as the boy turned to answer and tugged on her cloak. _Be nice,_ she mouthed.

"I'm not normally on their team," he responded. "I prefer to work on my own."

"I see." Neji pretended not to see her glare but wrapped the cloak around him anyway. "Please," he gestured, "lead the way."

"Good thing we switched to warmer shoes before leaving the village," Tenten remarked, wiggling her feet into dark grey boots. "We'd get frostbite with our normal ones."

"Is it warm in Konoha all year then, Tenten-_san_?"

"Usually," she smiled again. "It is the Land of Fire, after all."

"But there are no deserts, right?"

"Get a map." Even as the words left his mouth, Neji himself was surprised at the venom in his voice. "My apologies," he bowed quickly to avoid yet another glare from his _kunoichi_ companion, hands clasped before him.

Shuya didn't seem offended. "No apology need, Neji-_san_," he assured; though despite his cheerful demeanor, his eyes were calculating.

"Neji." He winced inwardly as the slightest hint of anger in her voice. "Why don't you stay here." It was not a suggestion. "You're still tired."

Still surprised at himself, Neji unclenched the fist he hadn't remembered clenching and inclined his head politely to the two of them. "I'll do that," he murmured. "Here," he moved to return the cloak, but Shuya shook his head.

"Keep it. It will be cold tomorrow, Neji-_san_."

"I'll be back," was all Tenten said, turning to follow Shuya.

Neji watched them go, the sounds of their footsteps muffled on the navy-blue carpet. Pressing his fingertips to his forehead, he grimaced and went back into their room. This land... it was as if the ghost of his father drifted over his shoulder. Hyuuga Hizashi, murdered as a tribute to these same inanely smiling Cloud _shinobi_. _Father,_ he thought, throwing himself on the bed and tossing his glasses in the general direction of the dresser, _I know you said to make my own destiny. I'm trying to do that. But, Father... I feel myself slipping back into the darkness every night I spend here. Why, Father? Is it because I never learned what they did to your body? I want to know. I want to kill the bastards who forced you to choose this destiny. Is that bad?_

He knew better than to expect an answer as he rolled over and gazed at the curtained window. _But, Father... I feel like I understand Uchiha Sasuke a little better now._

-xXx-

"I apologize for him," Tenten was still infuriated at her partner's blatant rudeness, but she couldn't hold it against him for long. "He's-"

"He's jealous, Tenten-_san_?"

"Huh?"

Shuya held the door open for her. "After all, I'm spending time with Neji-_san_'s girlfriend."

She laughed aloud. "I'm not his girlfriend. We're just very close friends." The thought made her giggle.

"My mistake then, Tenten-_san_." As she joined him outside, he pointed to the two mountains flanking the village. "These are the twin hands of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. The one on our right is Shiroite, and the one on the left is Kuroite."

"I see..." Tenten wrapped her arms around her and shivered. Shiroite looked how one might picture a typical snow-capped mountain, but something about the other gave her a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.

"There are wall engravings of the former Raikage's in there." Shuya drew her attention to a large outcropping protruding from the side of Kuroite like a warding hand, "but they're off-limits to outsiders. Sorry, Tenten-_san_."

She nodded. "I see," she repeated, shifting the conversation to something more interesting. "Tell me about the rogue-_nin_. What information do you have?"

"Not much, I'm afraid." Shuya led her down the main street, mostly deserted but for those few in shops. "We can't even tell you his or her identity."

"Can't or wont?" she asked pointedly.

The boy laughed. "You Konoha _shinobi_ are very suspicious people."

"If you were us, wouldn't you be?" She raised an eyebrow with a small smile. "Besides, you're the same way. You absorb everything around you to gauge its threat, don't you?"

"Huh." He returned the raised-eyebrow look. "I'm impressed you noticed that, Tenten-_san_. Evidently I'm not the only observant one."

"You learn a lot about body language with Neji."

"Oh?" Shuya stopped at the sliding window of a small shop, but Tenten didn't elaborate. With sweaty palms, she wondered if she'd already said too much.

"So, no information on the rogue-_nin_?" she shifted the conversation to safer areas again.

"None that I know of." Shuya pulled his wallet from his vest beneath his cloak and handed someone a handful of coins through the window. "Two, please." He turned back to her and slipped his wallet back inside his vest. "All I know for sure, Tenten-_san_, is that one of the border guys reported tha he was headed back this way-"

"But lost sight and couldn't pick up the tracks, right?" Tenten sighed, watching her breath turn to fog with some amusement. "Same here."

"Thank you." Shuya stepped away from the window and handed her a foam cup. "Here."

"What is it?" In spite of the lid, steam rose from its contents.

"Steamed milk with cocoa." He smiled and looked at the ground between his feet. "I call it hot chocolate."

"Mm." She took a sip and returned the smile. "It's good."

"I always have one when it first starts to snow, Tenten-_san_." His face sobered. "Raikage-_sama_ may have additional information I don't. Plus, I have a theory I've been poking into."

"A theory?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing. I don't have any real proof."

The two _shinobi_ walked through the snow, looking for all the world like nothing more than two teens on a date rather than two soldiers on opposite sides of what may become war. "This is our main shopping district, Tenten-_san_." Shuya pointed out several restaurants. "They're good places to get something to eat, so you and Neji-_san_ won't have to just eat whatever rations you brought with you."

"Mm-hm." Tenten nodded, raising her cup to her lips. "Tell me, why do you always refer to me by name?"

He started like a kid caught in a lie. "Ah," his grin turned shamefaced. "It's nothing, but I always thought names had a certain power to them- I like to use them as much as I can, Tenten-_san_." Shuya raised his hands over his head to stretch and froze, staring up at Kuroite. "We should start heading back," he said abruptly, crushing the empty cup in his hand and tossing it in the general direction of the garbage can.

"Is something wrong?" Tenten followed where his gaze had been but saw nothing.

"No." He shook his head quickly, then stopped and nodded. "Yes, actually. Sorry, but there's something I have to do, Tenten-_san_." Earnest grey eyes searched her face. "If you think you could find your own way back...?"

"Of course." Her eyes narrowed. His calm, assured and slightly shy manner had vanished. If anything, he looked afraid. "Is there any way I can help?"

"No!" Shuya softened the exclamation with a smile. "This is something I must do myself, Tenten-_san_." He faced her and bowed low. "_Arigato gozaimashita_," he thanked her, voice strong.

She took the hand he offered with increasing unease. "Shuya...?"

"And, Tenten-_san_..." Shuya stepped back, the smile now only in his eyes. "_Sayonara_."

Tenten watched him walk briskly through the snow like it wasn't even there, watching his back until the lightly falling snow finally obscured his form. Something was wrong. The night was far too quiet. A quick scrape of metal against leather sounded abnormally loud amongst the snow as she drew a _kunai_. The weight of the metal in palm reassured her, and she began to pick her way back, heading in the opposite direction from Shuya.

It was his eyes more than his spoken farewell that gave her the feeling she would never see him again.

-xXx-

Mamoru Shuya's stride was sure as he marched to his death. No one had told him he was going to die, but he'd heard his death-song upon the softly blowing snow.

Hand on his _shuriken_ holster, he climbed the path leading to the engraved faces of the Raikage's, grey braid slapping against his back from the wind. There had been someone standing there, someone watching him. And he knew that tonight he would learn the identity of the rogue-_nin_ at the cost of his life.

All this and more ran through his mind as he ascended Kuroite, the Dark Hand. When Death came for him wielding dual _kodachi_ wearing the blue and white mask of ANBU, he fought amidst the falling snow, fighting for his life; above all, he fought with the knowledge that death was at his side.

After all, as his _kunai_ was knocked aside and an eager blade bit into his heart, Mamoru Shuya died with the knowledge that he had been right. And he could think of no better way to die.

Carrying two cups of hot chocolate, one for her and one for Neji, Tenten stumbled in the snow. The cup Shuya had bought for her slipped from her hand and splattered on the ground.

_sayonara, watashi no nakama _

_sayonara, my friend_

**A/N: Thanks to my four reviewers: whitepheonix13, Cyberwolf, iAtRI, and Kratos Wilder. _Arigato, minna-san._**

**So, if you'll permit me some time, I'd just like to say that it took me some time before I was satisfied with this chapter, but I've become rather pleased with it. I'm kind of sad that I killed Shuya so fast, but it's necessary- really!**

**-- Jade**


	5. Shi – Boukon Ikiumeru

_Shi – Boukon Ikiumeru_

--Four – To Bury the Soul Alive--

"Iyatsu."

Itatsu carefully kept his face emotionless as the Raikage deliberately mispronounced his name as usual, his deep, gravelly voice like a hailstorm of stone. "_Hai_, Raikage-_sama_?"

"You seem to have lost control of your rogue _shinobi_, Iyatsu."

He didn't raise his head, nor did he blink. "With respect sir, I have not." Glasses began to slip down his nose from his position, but he made no move to adjust them. "Everything is going according to plan."

"Oh?" The Raikage sounded indulgently surprised. "So the murder of one of our own _shinobi _was part of the plan?" Voice chilling, he added; "I was not informed of this."

Itatsu felt sweat bead on his forehead. "I'm very sorry, sir, but circumstances demanded the sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?" No longer indulgent this time.

Itatsu flinched. A single drop of sweat fell to the polished ebony-wood floor. "Mamoru Shuya had suspicions," he justified quietly. "He would have discovered our plan-"

"_But you have failed, Iyatsu!_"

The force of the Raikage's voice was enough to send Itatsu scrambling backward involuntarily. "R-Raikage-_sama_?" he managed, mouth dry, heart pounding. But he still didn't lift his eyes.

"Your information was false, Iyatsu! Your grand plan has _failed_!"

"I... I don't understand, Raikage-_sama_," he whispered, not daring to raise his voice any higher. "We maneuvered the _Jounin_ member of the Hyuuga clan into coming-"

"A member of their twice-accursed branch family!" His voice echoed and crashed like thunder.

He reeled back as if struck. "But sir, he's the only Hyuuga _Jounin_-"

"You failed to complete your research, Iyatsu. The heir is a female, a _Chuunin_... Hyuuga Hinata!"

As the voice of the Raikage calmed, Itatsu began to think. "But sir... this isn't such a bad thing." He finally adjusted his glasses up the bridge of his nose, calculating. "If a member of the branch family were to disappear... it wouldn't be investigated as thoroughly, would it?"

"Explain." His voice had shifted to indulgent again.

"We stage the death of Hyuuga Neji- Yume can do that well. Then we have a living wielder of the _Byakugan_ to examine at will." His marvelous brain kept working. "If he's put in a near-death state, and his companion witnesses it, then Konoha will have no choice but to assume him dead. We'd have to fake either a dead body or..." he stopped, realizing he was babbling, and held his breath.

"And when they send more men after your rogue-_nin_, Iyatsu?" His voice was thoughtful, and Itatsu knew he only had to push a little farther... though failure to convince the Raikage could mean more than just a cancellation of the plan.

In spite of the risk, the ghost of a smile flitted across his face. "Hyuuga's partner will have already taken care of her."

"Ah." Itatsu heard the sound of the Raikage sitting back in contemplation, but he still didn't dare raise his head. "Writing off more of your comrades, Iyatsu?"

Unsure whether it was praise or condemnation, Itatsu said nothing. He simply fixed his glasses.

"Very well then." A rustle of cloth as the Raikage nodded once in approval. "As you said, sacrifices are necessary." His voice chilled one final time. "That applies to you, as well."

Itatsu accepted the reminder with a bow as he stepped backward. Through the entire meeting, he had never looked at his leader. But he pushed that from his mind as he exited and adjusted his glasses. Now to contact his assassin...

-xXx-

Tenten tugged on the hem of her recently purchased black skirt and frowned. "This isn't good," she muttered, turning in the cramped bathroom to examine herself in the mirror. "Neji... tell me sizes in the Land of Lightning are different from the Land of Fire."

"Why?" his voice asked from the other room.

"My clothes are too small by a size." She tugged her skirt again. "Maybe if I let out the hem..." Arms over her head, she tried to stretch, but the fabric wouldn't allow for that.

"No one's going to care." Neji's eyes were closed in annoyance. "Let's go, Tenten."

"One second." She finally emerged from the bathroom, arms crossed over her chest. "I have to get something..." Tenten knelt and dug through her pack until she produced a smaller version of the summoning scroll she always carried on her back and tucked it into her shirt. "Okay, let's go."

Neji threw his cloak over his shoulders and slipped on his boots. The two were silent as they walked to the village cemetery. The snowfall of the night before covered the ground, but the day was bright and clear; abstractly, Tenten wondered if the weather were mocking her friend's death.

"They're not buried," Neji remarked quietly as they entered the cemetery, noting the small spaces between the tombstones in the center. Most were bare of any form of decoration but for a name and date of birth and death; those center few bore a single sparkling stone, somehow untouched by the elements.

It was these centermost, close-set tombstones where three people stood. Yumiko and her _Jounin_-_sensei_ stood motionless alongside another boy, younger than they were. Tenten noted it was he who looked up at the approach of the Konoha ninja, and his gaze froze her in mid-step as, for an instant, the piercing grey eyes of the dead penetrated her in a familiar stare. This boy, then, must be Shuya's brother, or another close relative. Inexplicably, it took her breath away and brought tears to her eyes.

Neji sensed her distress and put a hand on her shoulder. With a deep breath, she marched up and bowed to the two Cloud ninja.

"Delegates of Konoha," the _Jounin_ returned their bows, "is it good that you came." He checked the position of the sun in the sky. "Now we need only wait for one more."

"Hey!" As if cued, a shock of bright red hair bounced toward them from the edge of the burial ground, waving madly. "I'm coming!" Contact lenses again in his eyes, Itatsu bounded up, wheezing for breath.

"Show some respect," Yumiko whispered angrily, tears sparkling unshed in her indigo eyes.

"Now that we're all assembled," the _Jounin_ cast a reproving glare at the red-head, "Enrisu, if you would begin?"

The grey-eyed boy nodded and knelt before the blank tombstone before them. He breathed in once, then closed his eyes and brought his hands together. _Tori, uma_ – the rest of the hand-signs he wove were too fast to be easily seen. The complicated series went on for almost a minute before he paused on the final sign: _tora_, the tiger.

Chakra now glowed visibly in his hands; Enrisu held them crossed, palms down over a deep-blue porcelain urn. With a start, Tenten realized that the black dust drifting up to float gently beneath the boy's hands must be Shuya's ashes.

Enrisu moved his hands slowly from their crossed position as if to circle the floating ashes. He stopped, an expression of intense concentration taking his features, then pressed his palms inward. Blue Chakra enveloped Shuya's remains and compressed inward, forcing the carbon atoms to bond in new ways until all that was left was a single, sparkling clear stone.

As the boy pressed the still-glowing diamond to the tombstone, the Chakra engraved the fallen ninja's name beneath it.

Mamoru Shuya 

And the stone dimmed, its Chakra apparently spent.

Enrisu bowed before the memory of his brother, forehead to the ground and black braid falling over his shoulders. "Rest in peace, _nii-san_," he whispered. "You will be avenged."

The solemn ceremony finished, Neji remained silent as the others dispersed. Once they had all gone, he would examine the diamond with his _Byakugan_; something was definitely not as it appeared. Only listening with half an ear as Tenten spoke to Enrisu, he studied the single gem carefully.

"Neji-_san_," a soft voice from behind him shook his reverie. He turned to see Yumiko shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Do you think... you can Tenten-_san_ could come with me somewhere?"

His eyes narrowed, part suspicion, part confusion. "Excuse me?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Enrisu bow and depart. Tenten sat on her heels before the grave and clasped her hands, eyes closed and head resting on her fingertips.

"_Hai_. Please?" She suddenly looked uncertain and it her lip. "That is, if it's not too much trouble..." Yumiko stared at the ground beneath her feet as if she couldn't meet his eyes.

He examined her face, and, divining no duplicity, nodded. "Of course, if you'll give us a minute."

She returned the nod and stepped back.

Neji dropped down next to his friend. "Tenten," he said softly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open immediately. "What is it?"

"Yumiko wants us to go with her."

"Where?" The two stood simultaneously.

Neji watched Yumiko over his _kunoichi_ companion's shoulder. "I'm not sure," he answered honestly, resisting the urge to peek over the rims of his glasses. "There's something about her I don't like, but I don't have any justification."

"Mm." Tenten glanced over her shoulder to examine the other _kunoichi_.

Meters away, Yumiko couldn't hear their conversation. She could guess, though- they were uneasy, but they'd come anyway. That facet of their personalities was painfully obvious to one who'd trained since birth to read body language. Her skill all but let her read minds; a skill that continued to also serve her well in battle.

And it would have to, against a hated member of the Hyuuga clan. Though... the only trouble she would have would be keeping him, as ordered, _alive_...

**A/N: Before you complain, I realize this chapter was both long in coming and really seemingly rather chock full of almost absolutely nothing important... but trust me, most things will become important. That being said, it was really no fun to write; can you tell I hate saying goodbye to my own characters? It's horrible. BUT! I am excited for the next.**

**I'd like to thank my ****six**** (that's right, **_**watashi no nakama **_**six!****) reviewers: **

_**animegirl1o1, iAtRI, Kratos Wilder, Merciless Ruby, whitepheonix13, **_**and **_**KazeRose – **_

_**Arigato, minna-san!**_

**I'm hungry. I'm going to get something to eat now...**


	6. Go – Unmei

**A/N: I'd just like to say that the song: "Tenten Theme (piano)" fits this story extremely well in most places. In my profile, under the ****_Raikiri no Yume_**** section, I've provided a link to where you can stream it if you're interested.**

_Go – Unmei_

--Five – Fate--

"_Yumiko." She felt his hands press down on her shoulders and closed her eyes, blocking the image of the candlelit room._

"_Hai?" Her head tilted back to lean against his chest. "Who do you need me to kill?" Far from sounding annoyed, her voice was almost that of ecstasy. He had chosen her- her!- to be the instrument to fulfill their dream._

"_It's time." His voice dripped into her ears like melting honey._

_A slight smile curved her lips. "Don't be mysterious, Itatsu," she warned playfully._

_She shuddered as his hand stroked her neck. "As I promised, Yume. It's time for you to eliminate the Hyuuga."_

_Nearly cracking her head on the low ceiling, she sprang excitedly from her chair. "I can kill him?"_

"_No!" Itatsu took her by the shoulders, his gaze boring into her indigo eyes. "You can't kill him!"_

"_But...?" Confused, she didn't resist his hold._

_Itatsu sighed and used one hand to adjust his glasses. "You can't kill him yet. Only a near-death state-"_

"_No!" Yumiko yanked herself away and stepped back, betrayed. "I want him dead!" Like a child, she glared and stamped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest. She felt a slight flutter of fear as she remembered the choke hold he had trapped her in last time she had protested, but this was too important to let go._

"_Please, Yumiko." The red-haired boy held up his hands to placate her. "He'll most likely be tortured and experimented on. This is a sweeter revenge." His voice softened. "The secret of Byakugan can be ours, just like your father planned."_

"_He was the head Cloud ninja! We should have destroyed their village for that treasonous act!" Her indigo eyes blazed fiercely._

_Itatsu knew he was treading on dangerous ground here; he had to maintain her hero-worship of her father without sending her over the edge- something that happened far too often. "That's right; he gave his life to help our village." As if approaching a wild animal, he stepped forward carefully. "You don't want his sacrifice to be in vain, do you?"_

_That same smile graced her lips again, and abruptly she was calm. "I understand. But..." she trailed off and glanced up hopefully, again the child. "Can I kill him when we're done with him?"_

"_Of course," his voice soothed her. "Now listen, and I'll give you the details..."_

As she picked her way down the snow-covered street, the morning memory added an extra spring to her step. Behind her, unwitting, followed a member of that most-hated clan who had killed her father. And, this time from the shadows unprovoked, she would strike the first blow.

-xXx-

Houses and shops lined the narrow streets down which Neji and Tenten followed Yumiko. Neji kept his eyes ahead, but his ears caught a faint catch in his partner's step. "What's wrong, Tenten?" he murmured, shortening his stride to walk beside her.

She shook her head and quickened her own pace. "Nothing. Why would anything be wrong?"

He again changed his pace to stay by her side. "You're not yourself," he said bluntly, keeping his voice low. "You're not alert."

Tenten sighed and stared blankly at one of the many wooden shops, not registering its sign boasting of baked delicacies. "This way... this is the way I came with him."

"Shuya?"

A quick nod. "I don't know why I'm so strongly affected by his death," she admitted softly. "I only knew him for a short time, but-"

"Then he was gone?" Neji put a gentle hand on her shoulder as she nodded.

"It's just... it reminded me... we're _shinobi_. We put our lives on the line for what?" She hissed through her teeth in frustration. "Money? Pride?"

Neji shook his head. "I think every _shinobi_- no, every person asks himself that. Why does anyone do anything?"

"A-ah." Tenten crossed her arms and glared. "How come whenever I ask you something, I end up with more questions?"

"Hmph." A Neji laugh. "Sorry."

"But..." her troubled face turned toward the unforgiving sky, "he was no older than us, with dreams and hopes. Why him? Why Shuya?"

Neji only squeezed her shoulder in silent support. Anything he might have said died unspoken as Yumiko turned and waved them closer.

"We'll be ascending Kuroite," she informed them. "To where Shuya was murdered."

Neji saw a flicker of -pain?- cross his partner's face as she stopped in her tracks. "Why?" Her voice harsh, her eyes cold.

Indigo met chocolate unflinchingly. "There's something you both need to see." Yumiko looked to have gained some measure of courage as they had left the cemetery; again, something struck Neji as odd, but nothing revealed itself to him.

And the foot of the immense black mountain loomed before them. The Cloud ninja pointed to a narrow, rail-less path. "_Kuroite no Yama_," she identified it by its full name. "The Mountain of the Black Hand."

"I thought outsiders weren't to set foot here," Tenten stated.

Yumiko flinched. "We should hurry," she deflected the question.

With a quick glance at Tenten as they began to ascend the narrow path, Neji increased his pace so he was directly behind their guide. "Yumiko," he addressed her.

"What is it, Neji-_san_?" She didn't turn, keeping her focus straight ahead.

"Why are you bringing us here?"

A pause. "I don't know who to trust anymore," she said finally. "Do you know what it's like, not being able to trust anyone in your own village?" A quick glance over her shoulder at the village below. "So I came to the two of you, who are not from my village. Neji-_san_..."

Her eyes said _I hate you_, her face said _please believe me_, and her lips said, "I came here to see for myself. And I found something."

Behind his shielding glasses, Neji's eyes narrowed at the paradox this girl presented, but they were too close to each other to voice his suspicions to Tenten. "What did you find?" he asked in response to her leading statement.

"A clue to the rogue-nin's identity." Yumiko shrugged, and the uncertainty returned to her face. "Maybe."

A sudden gust of wind blew some small stones, skittering down the path like hurried insects. A few white flakes of snow drifted down from the mountain's peak.

"I hate skirts," Tenten muttered from behind him, shivering. Neji tucked his hands into his cloak and ducked his head against the wind.

"This way." Yumiko ducked into a passage to her right, leading the two through a lightless tunnel carved of what seemed like pure obsidian. They turned a corner, feet scraping on the smooth, carved surface, and emerged into a hollowed cave open to the air. 

Upon the ebony walls were engraved in white the outlines of the previous Raikage. Seven intricately detailed faces glared down as if to condemn she who had allowed foreign _shinobi_ to interrupt their repose. Tenten stopped and stared up at the eighth face, strangely blank.

She pointed up. "Why is there no face?"

Yumiko, on her knees and running her hands along the smooth obsidian ground, didn't look up. "That's our current Raikage-_sama_," she answered distractedly, as if by reflex without real thought.

Neji knelt beside her. "What are you looking for?"

This she didn't answer, simply shaking her head and moving across the floor.

Uneasiness mounted until it was a physical pressure in his chest. It wasn't that he sensed something; it was that he sensed nothing. To all his trained powers of perception, it was as if Yumiko were not even there. "_Bunshin no jutsu_?" he asked himself softly. If it were a clone technique, when would she have switched? More importantly, _why_ would she have switched? But it couldn't be- there would have been no opportunities to do any kind of _jutsu_; his eyes weren't so clouded to miss that. 

Before he could arrive at any kind of satisfactory answer, Yumiko stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Over here, Neji-_san_," she called.

One step forward, pressure in his chest increasing until he couldn't breathe. He turned midway through his second step, mouth open to warn-

A slight puff of air. Agony unfathomable.

Silence.

**A/N: And that seems like a good place to stop. I was going to make this longer, but this just seems like such a good climatic chapter ending. Yes, I intentionally made this chapter title the only non-verb phrase; it wasn't just because I was uncreative. For those who watch the anime in Japanese, _unmei_ is the word for fate/destiny that the Hyuuga clan always uses. To those watching it in English... _why are you watching it in English_?**

**Thanks to my _eight_(!)**** reviewers, **_**KazeRose**__**Merciless Ruby, whitepheonix13, Kratos Wilder, iAtRI, JanuaryFriend, BlueHeavensAngel, **_**and **_**Nyaro. **__**Arigato gozaimashita!**_


	7. Roku – Mau

**A/N: Just like an anime, I'm repeating the same scene over again, but slightly different. Man, I hate it when they do that. XX Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy Easter! For those of you not Christian... have a piece of chocolate anyway. By the end of this chapter, does this story need to be bumped up to an _M_ rating?**

_Roku – Mau_

--Six – To Dance a Whirling Dance--

Tenten stood with her hands clasped behind her back, studying the outlines of the Raikage engraved on the obsidian wall.

"Over here, Neji-_san_," Yumiko called. Tenten turned and saw him step forward and look to her, his mouth open.

A click, a flash in the sunlight, and Neji fell to his knees in slow eerie silence, expression twisting in anguish. He coughed once into his hand, spewing blood across pale flesh, then collapsed; his face trapped somewhere between pain and shock. His dark glasses flew from his face and bounced once on the ground, a single lens cracking.

A scream burst from her lungs, and with no memory of moving, Tenten cradled his head against her chest. "Neji." She shook his shoulders roughly. "Neji."

His milky eyes stared up at her, still wide with surprise. "Neji." With mounting panic, she shook him again. "This isn't funny."

Neji coughed again, splattering blood across her breast and weakly drawing in his knees like a child. "Tenten... _samui da_," he whispered.

"I know it's cold," she pulled him closer, and it was only then that the six _senbon_ protruding from the back of his throat were visible. "No." She felt his breath shudder against her skin, his body warm against her bare legs. "Neji, no!" Desperation colored her voice in a way it never had before. "Don't you die, Hyuuga Neji!"

"Tenten-_san_-" Yumiko knelt beside her, concern across her face.

The eyes of a demon glared back. "Don't you dare touch him," she hissed, Chakra building around her in near-visible waves. "I don't know what you Cloud ninja are up to, but I'll kill you where you stand if you take _one-step-closer!_"

More blood sprayed across her face as he violently convulsed in her arms. "Neji!"

"Tenten-_san_, don't be a fool!" Indigo eyes wide, Yumiko was truly terrified for the boy's life; if this bitch kept holding him like that, he really _would_ die! Itatsu would never allow her to live after a blunder of that magnitude. "Please, I'll take Neji-_san_ to the hospital!"

"Tenten..." he managed, a single, heartwrenching word.

Tears filled her eyes, and her anguished gaze turned to Yumiko. "Take him," she whispered. "Don't let him die."

"Don't worry, I won't." Yumiko nodded. "You've got to catch the rogue-nin before he escapes!" With one swift motion, she gathered Neji in her arms and leapt out from the mountain, dashing across the rooftops with catlike grace.

Tenten shakily rose to her feet. "I will find you," she vowed, a fire deep in her eyes. "For Shuya... and for Neji." She touched the bare skin on her upper chest, and her fingers came away dipped in his blood. Her fist clenched. "I will kill you." Slightly calmer but no less determined, she brushed away her tears, heedless of the blood smearing across her face. She took a breath to calm her frantically beating heart and turned toward the rock face. From the trajectory, the rogue-nin must have thrown the _senbon_ from...

She frowned. _Masaka!_ Impossible! No one could throw a curving shot with a needle around the mouth of the manmade cave, much less six in quick succession. The _shinobi_ would have had to have been within the wall itself, but a concentration of Chakra that strong would easily be detected. Unless...

With strong steps, she pressed both hands against the wall that had been to Neji's back, fingers searching for- there! Almost imperceptibly blended in against the stone was a small wooden crossbow, modified to fire _senbon_ and painted black. With growing unease, she carefully pried it free of its nook and examined it, eyes narrowing. The trigger mechanism was broken, as if pulled with too much force. Trapped among the splinters hung a nearly invisible thread; the kind of abbreviated thread one would use to focus a Chakra string. That was the thing about Chakra strings though; it was difficult to know how much pressure one was applying, especially if applied quickly and from straight in front of the weapon, as most concealed weapons of this kind were prone to be triggered...

Almost not daring to look, unease cooling in a small pit in her stomach, Tenten shifted her gaze. Directly before where the crossbow had been, about five meters from where she stood now, was the exact spot where Yumiko had been kneeling. "_No-_" before the word even finished, Tenten dashed over. Lying there against the stone was a matching short thread, looped to have been over a finger.

The slender crossbow cracked sharply in her clenched fist. "Neji!"

-xXx-

Adrenaline and pure rage drove her across the rooftops, following the fresh prints left by Yumiko's passage. Gleaming red against the snow were scattered droplets of blood. Tenten refused to think that he might die before she reached him; it was inconceivable. It _would not happen_. Snow melted to slush at her feet as her Chakra propelled her faster. "Yumiko, you bitch!" a stranger's voice screamed from her lungs. The tracks had disappeared into a coniferous forest; so intent had she been on following her adversary that she'd barely noticed she was approaching the edge of the village. "Don't think you can hide from me!" Without hesitation, she plunged into the darkness.

Upon entering, however, she paused upon a branch and pulled her summoning scroll from where she had tucked it into her bra what seemed like years ago. Unrolling it to the first symbol, she bit the corner of her thumb and smeared her blood across the seal.

An explosion of white smoke, and a _kunai_ appeared in her hand. Without second thought, Tenten shifted her grip and stabbed the point into the top hem of her skirt, slitting the fabric all the way down her thigh. In this forest, freedom of movement was more important than fashion. She tossed aside the white cloak and tore the too-small sleeves from their stitching, numb to the cold air from anger. As she dashed off deeper into the dark forest, tucking the scroll back into its hiding place, the white cloak fluttered lazily through the air and snagged on a branch, blowing like a flag.

Little snow had penetrated the dense foliage; the bed of yellow, dead fallen needles muffled her steps as she ran along the ground. A few minutes ago, the drops of blood had stopped dotting the tracks; again, Tenten refused to contemplate the reasons why. "Never again," she whispered, increasing her pace even more, "will one of my comrades die because I wasn't there!"

"_Honto ni?_ Really?" a mocking voice called from the shadows. "Too late, too late..."

And Tenten burst into a clearing, squinting in the sudden bright sunlight. "Yumiko!" Blazing brown eyes snapped up as she snarled. Waiting atop a sturdy branch stood the rogue-nin, hands on her hips, a wicked smile adorning her face. "What've you done with Neji?"

Indigo eyes gleaming, she jumped back. A single limp bundle was revealed before her, sprawled across the branch. "Neji-_san_?" Fake surprise rendered the honorific insulting. Sadistic amusement twitched her lips, and with a vicious kick, the bundle -a body!?- sailed through the air, limbs flailing like a doll.

A sick thud. White robes flapping as the body bounced from the needles and landed again.

White eyes staring in forever-silent condemnation.

_Hyuuga Neji_

_- "I want to be a great kunoichi like Tsunade!"_

"_Good! And what about you, Neji?" _

"_Hmph." Neji turned away, eyes closed, legs sprawled across the bench casually, completely undermining the importance of their first meeting as Genin with Gai-sensei atop the roof. The bright morning sun streamed through the clouds. "I don't want to answer." -_

_Hyuuga Neji_

_- - "Hmph." Without even activating his Kekkei Genkai, Neji pinned Lee to the dirt with one foot, arms crossed over his chest. "You can't beat me. It's fate."_

"_I don't care!" Lee moved to pound his fist into the bone of Neji's ankle, but the other boy only picked up his foot and stomped his heel into the tender spot of the solar plexus._

"_It's useless." A snort of contempt as Lee cried out in pain and doubled up. The impromptu sparring match was over, the victor again the challenged. Neji leaned against the trunk of a tree. "We're all born with an unchangeable fate. Unmei da." This is fate. - -_

_Hyuuga Neji_

_- - - "Lee!" Tenten, one hand on her shuriken holster, stared in dismay at the sight of her teammate's unconscious body, bruised and battered. Their chances of surviving through the Forest of Death had lessened if he was injured._

"_You blew it," Neji remarked calmly._

_Arms crossed before him, he activated the Byakugan with terrifying suddenness, penetrating through as if to the very soul of the Sound ninja who had dared assault one of them. "You messed with him, didn't you!?" - - -_

_Hyuuga Neji_

_- - - - "Tenten."_

_One brown eye opened, face twisting as a thousand muscle twinges shuddered through her body. "Itai. Ow." That one eye wincing in discomfort stared at her teammate, sitting with his arms crossed beside her hospital bed. "What're you doing here?"_

"_It was embarrassing how easily that Sand kunoichi beat you." His eyes were closed, his face turned toward the window._

_She hissed through her teeth. "If that's all you have to say, the door's over there." Her hand darted from beneath her sheets and jabbed at the opposite side of the room from where he sat. "Sorry I'm not a genius like-"_

"_Still," he continued as if he hadn't heard her, "with Lee in the shape he's in, I'll need you to train with me for the month before the final round." His face didn't change, but it was as if the temperature dropped a few degrees. "I've got to pay those Sand ninja back for putting my team in the hospital."_

"_Neji..." Tenten pushed up on her elbow, face incredulous. "You actually care that much about us?"_

"_Hmph." He finally opened his eyes and looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Ridiculous." - - - -_

_Hyuuga Neji_

_- - - - - The bed was hard, the sheets starched stiff. But, it was softer than the ground she had grown accustomed to sleeping on for the past few weeks. Neji had grumbled, saying that a proper bed was supposed to be on the floor. The Hyuuga clan was strange like that. The moonlight shining through a slight crack between the curtains stabbed like a white beacon in spite of the snowfall outside, its narrow ray casting a solid line across the bed. Carefully so as not to wake her partner sleeping beside her, Tenten rolled over without opening her eyes to escape the bright light of the Land of Lightning that had awakened her. Her unbound hair drifted over her shoulder and tickled her nose. The carefully cultivated ability to fall asleep almost instantly seemed to have deserted her this night. In spite of the warmth of the blankets, a chill stole through her. The look in that boy Shuya's eyes as he had said farewell haunted her mind..._

_"Tenten?" A rustle of stiff sheets._

_She fought to keep her breathing even. Now she'd gone and done it; she'd woken Neji. She'd never hear the end of it if he knew she was still awake, so she parted her lips and breathed slowly through her mouth, counting each breath- three heartbeats of inhaling, three heartbeats of exhaling._

_Another rustle. The mattress indented a little from his shift in position; she felt a draft as his movement pulled at the covers. Curiosity overwhelming her, she cracked open one brown eye, just a sliver._

_Suddenly it was four beats inhaling. The moonlight illuminated his face clearly. Neji was propped on his elbow, looking straight at her. He leaned forward, loose black hair falling over his shoulder, eyes never leaving her face. She felt goosebumps prickling her skin, and she was suddenly acutely aware of the thin silk nightshirt she wore when sleeping indoors, its white sheer fabric clinging to her body._

_The mattress springs creaked, and her eye quickly snapped shut. Almost too quiet to hear, he muttered, "ridiculous." But even as she felt him lay back down, the intensity of his gaze didn't waver._

_He was so close she could feel the warmth of his breath, the heat of his body. In the silence of the room, her heart beating furiously in her ears, sweat prickling in her palms. She barely noticed her breath quickening in response to the increased heart rate. Ridiculous, she inwardly echoed his spoken word. This was Neji, her comrade, her teammate, her partner. It's time for you to go to sleep, Tenten- you're hallucinating from exhaustion._

_The sheets rustled, and she felt him drawing closer, his breath soft against her skin, moving almost imperceptibly in marked contract to her heartbeat. She hesitated opening her eyes again, knowing the slightest movement would cause them to touch. How long they lay like that, she couldn't tell, heart pounding, mouth dry._

_The sheets rustled, and she inhaled sharply in spite of herself. Neji jolted back, head slamming into the pillow. The moment, whatever it had been, was lost. The ability to fall asleep instantly would indeed be hard to come by tonight. - - - - -_

"Yumiko." Fists trembled, clenched at her sides, the wrapping of her single held _kunai_ biting into her palm. Her head snapped up, brown eyes blazing through unshed tears. "I will kill you." Impossibly fast, she flicked the _kunai_ forward, pulling her summoning scroll with the other hand.

Laughing mockingly, Yumiko didn't even attempt to dodge, the _kunai_ thudding harmlessly into the branch before her. "Fool. There's no way a _kunai_ thrown from that angle would be able to-" And she was forced to quickly suck in a breath, half jumping, half falling to the ground, hand pressed to her stomach in shock. "A diversion!" Blood seeped through her fingers from a long slash across her belly, but the blow had gone shallow. "I underestimated you, Tenten!

"Tch." Concealed in the shadows, the _kunoichi_ hissed through her teeth.

"Choose your weapon, Tenten!" Yumiko called, a playful lilt to her voice. "I've never gotten to fight a weapons master before!" She turned slowly on one foot, eyes scanning the trees around the clearing with feverish excitement. "Come on, then!"

Her blood boiled, but she remained in place, her back pressed against the truck of a sturdy tree. This was the proper distance; she could attack or defend from here. Tenten's heart pounded against her chest, beating against her ribs like a prisoner in a cage; a hollow, physical pain centered in her breast every time she looked out at the accusing eyes of the body prone in the clearing, shortening her breath and blurring her vision.

"If you're not going to come..." Deliberately, Yumiko crossed her arms and reached over her shoulders, a crazy grin splitting her face in half. "I'll come to you!"

Shinnng hissed the metal against the wood of the scabbards on her back, and her kodachi appeared in her hands, gleaming in the sunlight. "Provide a fight for me, Tenten!" she snarled like a panther cornering its prey. "Fight me! Don't be like your dead friend."

It was as if a murderous veil dropped over Tenten's eyes, and suddenly her vision cleared, burning through her tears. "Close combat, is it?" she answered, voice low.

"I can feel your murderous intent!" Yumiko's crazy grin widened. "Here I come!" The air around her blurred-

A slight wisp of breeze against Tenten's back was the only warning; the _kunoichi_ dove forward in a roll as twin _kodachi_ sliced in an X through the trunk of the tree itself. The crash of falling branches was deafening, and Tenten was forced to cover her face as the pine needles sprayed through the air.

"You're good at running away!" Yumiko congratulated her, slapping the flat of her blade against the other. _Shinnng_ called the blades, and Tenten winced, pressing a hand against her ear.

"You bitch..." rage colored her voice, and she snapped her wrist, sending the paper of the scroll fluttering through the air. Tearing the scab from her thumb, she swiped it across the second symbol as Yumiko slapped her blades together again.

If possible, her grin widened further. "Try and come at me."

"Hmph." Tenten dropped the scroll, a simple wooden _bo_ staff appearing in her hand. "This is all I need to take care of trash like you."

A small laugh. "O-oh? You talk big for someone not fighting."

_Shinnng_ called the swords again.

One step forward, and it was as if her very lungs had turned to blocks of ice. Tenten coughed and dropped to her knees, unable to breathe.

Yumiko stomped her foot like a petulant child. "Too easy," she complained. "No one who hears the song of my blades can fight." _Shinn_-_nng_, she ran one up the side of the other. "Takes all the fun out of fighting."

Tenten gasped in vain, heart thudding in her ears as if it might explode. _I can't... breathe!_ On her knees, _bo_ useless beside her, her throat worked to no avail. Her stomach roiled, bile rose in her mouth, vomit mixed with blood dripped to the needles below her. Her fingers clutched at the ground, tearing up handfuls of undergrowth. _Neji!_

_Tenten-san!_ A whisper of air filtered into her lungs. _Tenten-san, don't give up!_

"Shu...ya..." she managed, black dots swimming before her eyes. "I'm... sorry..."

_Tenten-san, no!_

"This kind of death is too good for you," Yumiko's swords trembled in her clenched hands. "This is no good revenge. I want to hear you scream for your life. _I want to see you in pain and beg for forgiveness, you Konoha bitch!_" She brought the swords together in an X and slashed downward, stalking forward.

With the last bit of oxygen in her lungs fast running out, thought was hard to keep coherent. _Genjutsu...?_ she questioned. From the sound of the striking swords? Her enemy's steps seemed to fall in slow motion, this ceaseless suffocation draining her of strength. It took almost all her willpower to raise herself up on her hands and glare up at Yumiko, determined to face her death if death were coming. As she dragged herself up, through her failing vision, her eyes met Neji's.

_So, that's it then?_ Again, Shuya's voice rang through her mind. _You'll just let our deaths go unavenged? Is that the kind of person you really are under that cool exterior, Tenten-san? You'll just lay there and do nothing?_

_Who do you think you are? You're not worthy to avenge us._

"The hell... I'm not!" White eyes accused her and rage, pure, unfiltered rage flowed through her like an healing balm, and with a snap, the pressure in her lungs was gone, Chakra exploding from every _tenketsu_. A raw scream of fury burst from her lungs, scorching her throat with the fiery embers of hatred. Her fingers dug into the ground, Chakra blazing, eyes burning. Hands moving almost as if on their own, her scroll was suddenly in her hand. "You want a fight, Yumiko-_chan_?" she hissed, snapping the paper of the scroll free and mashing her thumb into the strong material with enough force to rip it. "Bring it."

Yumiko paused, Tenten's Chakra pressure forcing her to take a step back. She crossed her _kodachi_ before her with a smirk. "Try it, bitch." The puff of white smoke from her scroll seemed to hang in the air indefinitely; by the time it faded, Tenten already whirled her weapon through a complex pattern.

A condescending laugh burst from her throat. "That's just another staff, idiot!" Then she blinked. Tenten had disappeared. "Wha-?" Reflex alone saved her life; she snapped her kodachi into another high X, catching the tip of the staff between her blades and gouging the wood, sending chips flying through the air.

Still in the air, another shriek burst from Tenten's throat. "You killed Shuya!" And the staff broke apart into three sections, held together by chains. "_YOU KILLED NEJI!_"

"_Masaka_!" The chain of the three-sectioned staff wrapped around Yumiko's blade and yanked it from her hand. Her feet tucked beneath her, and Tenten kicked out.

Already wounded across the stomach, Yumiko let out a cry more akin to the scream of a dying kitten than a person. Her back cracked across a tree trunk, and blood spewed from between her lips and dripped down her face. "Bitch!" she screamed. "_Konoha killed my father!_"

"Konoha is about to kill you," Tenten promised coldly. As Yumiko struggled to her feet, lifeblood gushing from her stomach wound, she snapped the staff out again. Weakly, the other _kunoichi_ managed to grab it from the air.

A crack. Her hand had to have broken, and again her screams filled the air. White bone shattered and ruptured her skin, but she kept her grip, pulling the staff in so Tenten stumbled forward, brown eyes staring into indigo. "You're going to die with me," she whispered. "Know absolute despair before you die. _Neji might have lived had you not held on to him like that._"

Raw rage and fury erupted in her mind, blocking out all other emotions. Tenten smashed the side of her staff into Yumiko's head as her single remaining _kodachi_ slipped through her belly and skidded through muscle and tissue. Delicious agony shot like a starburst, but the pain only fueled her strength. All premise of self-control gone now. Tenten dropped the staff and yanked the blade from her own stomach with a scream. The single blade hacked into soft flesh, blood flying in gobbets from the Cloud ninja's body as she screamed with every blow. Red pulsed through her mind as more blood coated her face.

Yumiko had been dead for several minutes before the blade's vicious assault slowly ceased. Tears mixed with blood as Tenten collapsed on the ground, wounds howling in protest matching her frenzy of anguished sobs from pain and heartache.

She wailed. Neji was gone.


	8. Shichi – Akuma Nasu

Shichi – **A/N: I think I lost most of my readers... T-T In related news, I won first place in my category in the regional competition for National History Day. Since I forgot to do this at the end of the last chapter, I'd like to thank my 7 reviewers of ****Roku****: ****Kratos Wilder, whitepheonix13, Merciless Ruby, iAtRI, JanuaryFriend, Nyaro, ****and ****KazeRose****. Thank you, and apologies for not doing this last chapter!**

_Shichi – Akuma Nasu_

--Seven – To Become the Demon--

"Sir!" Panting with exhaustion, a simply dressed Cloud _shinobi_ dashed into the candlelit cell, the heavy wooden door crashing into the wall. "Sir, Yu-"

Without looking, Itatsu placed his finger over his lips for silence. "Shh." He bent over the motionless figure bound to a chair before him. Wires and leads snaked from his skull and his bare chest, linked to the blinking monitors lining the wall.

This had once been a dungeon, this winding maze of stone and mortar. A virtual labyrinth under the whole of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, it was rarely used now but as a retreat for civilians in times of crisis. With no such threat looming, Itatsu and his _shinobi_ had claimed the area as their own. It had been the work of several many months to gather the medical equipment and manpower required for such an undertaking; the planning had been enormous. There would be no second chances, and Itatsu was already infuriated at the mistakes already; this chamber and this plan had been designed to secure the heir to the Hyuuga clan, but their snare had trapped only a small fish, a branch family member.

Even still, Itatsu had been quick to improvise; he had to be. More than his own life was at stake; the future of his very village was in jeopardy. And he would do anything necessary for his village; even become the demon himself.

At long last, he turned. "Quietly, quietly," Itatsu cautioned calmly, orange candlelight gleaming from his glasses. "What do you need?"

The older man, Itatsu's subordinate, took a breath. "Yumiko's radioed in, sir," he finished softly

An ugly look twisted his face. "She had a radio?"

The messenger stepped back from the venom in his voice. "Is that a problem?" He blinked, confused.

Itatsu pressed his fingertips to his forehead. "She survived," he muttered to himself, "so it's of no matter, but this changes everything, and not for the better."

"Sir?"

His gaze snapped up, eyes obscured by the glare of the dim light. "I'm going to talk to her," he explained impatiently. "You!" He jabbed hi finger at the black-robed ANBU _shinobi_ leaning silently against the wall like a shadow. "Get to work!"

"_Hai_," the woman acknowledged emotionlessly, her rat-like mask providing no clue as for her expression at being so casually ordered about by what seemed to be only a _Genin_. As Itatsu left, she knelt before their captive and began her meditation.

-xXx-

The wind hissed through the pine needles, a spirit bereaved and howling. Snowflakes drifted lazily, knocked free of their treetop perch to light upon the girl curled up and weeping.

_a shinobi must never show emotion_

The sluggish flow of blood and bodily fluid stained the yellow bed of leaves and needles on which she lay. Tenten pressed her hands to the wound in her belly. Miraculously, none of her internal organs seemed to have been struck. Already weak from blood loss, the winter's chill seeping into her bones through the ragged remnants of her clothing, she could barely fight off the blackness spreading across her vision.

A weak cough shuddered through her body, and the pain in her stomach flared. In spite of this, she clawed her hand into the ground and dragged herself forward. Mere meters away lay the only hope to her salvation; sweat and blood and tears dripped to the ground as she forced herself to move, centimeters at a time through glaring, screaming agony, until her hand finally clasped her scroll.

Dizziness sweeping through her, Tenten bit the edge and pulled on the paper with her teeth, symbols blurring together in a river of ink as she unrolled it all the way to the end. Compelling her body through will alone, she pulled her hand from her body and slapped it against the final glyph, grasping the summoned object and sliding it to her. Dropping the scroll from her mouth, she hungrily bit the cloth bag in her hand and tore a small hole, letting a single pill drop onto her tongue.

As she swallowed it, Chakra flooded through her instantly. Her eyes brightened with renewed vigor, and the wound sizzled as it began to heal; not much, and not well, but it was enough to rid her of the debilitating pain and weakness.

_Arigato... Sakura..._ The pills, pressed on her by Haruno Sakura back when the younger woman had begun her medical training, provided a temporary boost to her muscles and increased the power of endorphins to reduce pain. Shakily, Tenten levered herself to her feet and stumbled to where Neji lay. Perhaps it was a side effect of the medicine, but as she stared down at the body, tears refused to come.

A wave of nausea swept through her. Choking back bile, she fell to her knees, hand to her mouth, brown eyes staring into white. _Neji_... Her eyes snapped up, and she glared at the bloody mass of flesh that had once called itself Yumiko. The rogue ninja girl who had dared take her teammate away from her. And through the hatred, Tenten felt a chill sweep through her, and she wearily lurched to her feet again.

_yumiko had been wearing a radio_

Thousands of thoughts exploded through her mind.

_she had not been working alone more cloud ninja responsible more people to kill to exact revenge upon more people to kill to destroy to hunt down and tear apart and-_

Displaying none of this, Tenten pressed the radio to her ear. An answering crackle confirmed that the device was still active, and a feral grin crossed her face. She paused before hitting the _transmit_ button, weighing the radio in her palm. If it were like most standard transmitters, it would have...

She pushed the _rewind_ button, a smirk crossing her face. This was a far more foolproof way to learn who else she was dealing with... and how best to take her revenge. She kept her finger on the black button until she heard voices other than her own and Yumiko's.

"Yumiko."

"_I've taken care of him, don't worry,"_ a confident edge for a girl who would be dead mere minutes after this was recorded.

"_Good,"_ the voice was vaguely familiar, and Tenten knew she'd heard it somewhere recently. _"I'll have someone meet you in the forest, and we'll switch Hyuuga with the fake body we've prepa-"_

Tenten's finger slipped from the stud, mouth dropping and heart soaring. Fear tempering eagerness, she rewound it again, listening to the same line over and over again.

_"...we'll switch Hyuuga with the fake body..."_

-xXx-

_Pwick. _

_Shining through the darkness like twin moons, pearl-like eyes snapped open, and Hyuuga Neji jolted upright. "Itai!" He grimaced in pain, hand reflexively flying to the back of his neck, but as if imagined, the pain disintegrated. He blinked and cast his gaze at his surroundings. The only illumination besides the faint pinpricks of starlight outside the window filtered from beneath the door. "The Konoha hospital?"_

**A/N: Apologies for the long wait and the short chapter; a lot of things have been going on recently, so... yeah. And this chapter was difficult to write. I hate it when that happens. **

**Again, I've lost about half of my reviewers, so I'd like to thank those of you who've stayed with me: _KazeRose, Merciless Ruby, whitepheonix13, _and_ iAtRI_. _Arigato, minna-san!_**


	9. Hachi – Nigeru

**A/N: To celebrate my passing of my Completion Project required to graduate from high school next year, I've decided to test a little bit of a newer writing style I'd planned on saving for my next work- a style which uses a bit more stream of consciousness. (Completion project is also why I haven't been able to update this in some time, for which I apologize profusely.)**

**In related (not really) news, I now have a livejournal I'll be primarily using for fanfiction news and such. The link is in my profile, and you're all welcome to visit (in fact, I encourage it).**

_Hachi – Nigeru (Hitori Dake no Tamashii)_

--Eight – To Flee (Lone Soul)--

"Halt!" Easily half-again her age, the _shinobi_ raised one hand, his face hidden by the animal-mask of the Land of Lightning's ANBU. "This area is off-limits, by order of Raikage-_sama_!" Resisting the urge to shift uncomfortably as indigo eyes stared him down as if piercing his mask, he surreptitiously tightened his wrist to allow a hidden _shuriken_ to drop into his palm, his other hand pressed against the thick wooden door set into the rock face. Snowflakes drifted through the air in a white haze.

"I know very well what's going on here," though her voice was soft, its edge reached her ears clearly. "I've come to see the Hyuuga prisoner."

His head jerked back. "I don't know what..." he trailed off and peered at her closer. The indigo-eyed girl met his unseen gaze unflinchingly; a flash of recognition crossed his mind. "_Yume-san, desu ka?_" he questioned. "Go ahead in; I apologize for the delay.

By the time he had straightened from his bow, the girl had disappeared, the heavy wooden door closing behind her without a whisper.

-xXx-

_A land of nightmares opened before him, black, clinging to his skin like oil. There was nothing to be seen; there was no sound; there was no sensation. As if all the nerves in his body had been deadened and his soul floated alone, in nothingness. He was afraid to breathe, afraid to coat his lungs with the slick suffocation. Within this terrible realm he drifted; if not dead, then impossible to be alive in for very long._

_That was the inescapable horror of genjutsu. Unless one were to realize he was in it, it could not be broken, could not be fled. That was the inescapable fallacy of the mind..._

_if it were to believe something to be true, it would become true_

_And so Hyuuga Neji drifted, afraid, subconsciously knowing that all his deepest secrets lay naked..._

-xXx-

Itatsu stalked the hall, fluorescent lighting flickering above him, morphing his shadow into demonic forms against the rough-hewn stone. Adjusting his glasses with one finger, he slammed his palm against the wooden door. In stark relief penetrated the sun, flooding the area in cold light.

"Itatsu-_sama_!" The ANBU snapped to attention and didn't look down to see his leader, eyes straight ahead.

"Never mind that!" Itatsu snapped irritably, eyes flashing behind lenses. "You let Yumiko in?" His fist clenched and unclenched at his side, the only sign of stress he revealed beyond his voice.

"_Hai_," he responded quickly.

The only sound was the door slamming shut behind him.

-xXx-

Flickering fluorescent light cast deep darkness across her face. Brown eyes gleamed, the uneven glow lending them a red hue, moving from shadow to shadow. Tenten hugged the rough-hewn walls, making her way further into the maze of tunnels she suspected ran under the entire village. Her masquerade as Yumiko had been pulled off successfully enough to allow her to bluff her way inside, but she had no desire to continuously expend her Chakra to keep this form, to maintain this illusion, this...

_unclean skin_

worn in an attempt to hide herself. In addition, she knew it was only a matter of time before Yumiko's body was discovered and an alert sounded- Tenten planned to be long gone by the time that happened, Neji behind her.

Her weapons scroll again secreted away but within easy reach, she clutched in her hands Yumiko's twin _kodachi_; their heft and length were similar to the short sticks with which she'd often practiced. By running her Chakra through the metal of both blades simultaneously, she could replicate the paralyzing effect-

_to full advantage_

Her purpose twofold, she made her way cautiously along the stone, melting into the shadows as cleanly as only a true shinobi could; one, to rescue Neji, two-

_revenge_

guided one footstep as surely as desire to save her companion drove the other.

-xXx-

_Within the darkness, he heard a young woman's voice. Hyuuga Neji blinked, though there was no hint that his eyes had closed; the darkness as opaque as obsidian obscured his vision._

_"Why not Byakugan?" she questioned._

_The voice was familiar, caressing his ears with promise of escape. "Tenten?"_

_She didn't answer, but her question resonated in his ears or his mind- he wasn't sure which. Why not the Byakugan, indeed? Perhaps it could penetrate this never-ending dark-_

_"Iya yo!" From a distant corner of the blackness, Tenten's voice screamed, its quality somehow different from her previous words as if someone else entirely spoke. "No!"_

-xXx-

"Can he break out of this?" Itatsu hovered over the shoulder of one of his ANBU men, peering down at the female ANBU kneeling before the prisoner in deep meditation.

Naught but thin ropes and simple knots bound Hyuuga Neji to the rickety wooden chair in the center of the stone dungeon. But for Itatsu's voice, the only sound was the constant, steady beeping of the medical devices lining the wall, connected to the many leads and wires snaking from the young man's body.

"He fights hard against our intrusion into his mind," the ANBU admitted grudgingly, "but not much more than any well-trained shinobi. If he were going to escape on his own, he would have managed to do so before now." Silently, he added that they'd already suffered setbacks- they had originally intended to trap him in a genjutsu of his home town, but Hyuuga's mind had refused to accept it, forcing them into their backup plan. He didn't say so, understanding that revealing such information would not ease their commander.

"I see." Itatsu, looking no more relieved, nodded.

The ANBU resisted the urge to sigh at this man's- no, this mere impudent boy's micro managing. "Was there anything else, sir?"

Pause. "Yes, actually, there is." A curious tone crept into his voice. "Should Yumiko come in here, don't let her leave. Inform me immediately."

It felt as if the room cooled several degrees. "Yume-_san_?" he repeated carefully. "Is there a problem?" Most of the ANBU corps were rather fond of the little ninja girl; she always treated them with the respect they deserved.

Itatsu was well aware of this, and he phrased his words carefully. "She hates Hyuuga with a passion. I just don't want her doing anything... drastic."

"_Hai_." The ANBU snapped a short bow in confirmation. "Don't worry, sir."

"Hm." Itatsu adjusted his glasses, fluorescent light gleaming from the lenses. "Don't give me cause to."

-xXx-

Her heart pounded in her ears, but a thrill tingled in her palms. Infiltration, the main art of the shinobi, always excited her on a primal level, the throbbing sensation of forbidden danger tugging on her soul. That same forbidden danger was what lured her to Neji, she's come to realize during the years of their partnership. Though a branch family member, he was still a son of the most distinguished and powerful clan in Konoha, setting him high on a pedestal that she, clanless, could never hope to mount.

Thinking during those long campfire-lit watches in the dead of night as her team slept, she'd come to realize that she wanted his respect and acknowledgement not because they were so different, as she'd originally assumed her attraction to be, offering her a door to a world she'd only glimpsed from the outside, but because he was her friend whom she could trust with her life.

Footsteps echoes down the corridor. She pressed herself against the stone, barely breathing as two masked ninja, laughing and chatting idly, passed her spot on the wall. All it took was for one to-

And then they were gone, disappearing farther down the hall and turning a rough-hewn corner. Releasing her held breath, Tenten continued to stealthily wind her way deeper into the labyrinth, her thoughts spiraling in her mind.

Hyuuga Neji possessed a grudging countenance, an utter air of dispassion that drew her to him even as it pushed her away, and as he came to terms with his past during their first Chuunin exam, his walls began to come down. Either that, or she'd simply begun to climb them, growing closer to him than to Rock Lee just from the sheer amount of time she spent with him. Though she counted both of the young men on her team as close friends, it was Neji she understood both the most and the least, mystifying and intriguing her in a way Lee never could. It was Neji she spent the most time with, Neji who'd saved her life on several occasions.

Neji whose life she was going to save now, even at the cost of her own.

Because, after all, it was Neji who she loved.

And there was the forbidden- it was frowned upon for a noble family member to love a "commoner". It was dangerous for a shinobi to love another shinobi; being on missions, constantly living with the fear of, not only one's own death, but the death of one's beloved...

And, she had decided long ago that Neji held no similar feelings toward her, so sure that the emotionless exterior was who he was.

Until this mission.

Until he had almost kissed her.

All her cold logic sundered, shattered by the simple realization-

_He wanted the forbidden as much as she did?_

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Tenten shook her head briskly and narrowed her focus. There was no more time for such thoughts now. She was deep enough into the complex that she should be coming upon them unaware and not expecting enemies.

It was here she would strike.

**A/N: And we're coming to a close, my friends. About two or three more chapters, and I'll be done. Finals approach, but they shouldn't interfere too much.**

**I'd like to thank my eight(!) reviewers from so long ago and hope you're all still with me:**

**_Merciless Ruby, KazeRose, Kibamonkey777, JanuaryFriend, whitepheonix13, Kratos Wilder, iAtRI, _****and **_**siriusju****.**_


	10. Kyuu – Kokoro Korozumu

**A/N: Apologies for the length of time between the last and this. My father was in the hospital, finals intruded like I promised they wouldn't, and I've decided that I can't say that I can release a chapter by a certain time, or else who-knows-what pops up to keep me from doing that. I apologize.**

_Kyuu – Kokoro Korozumu (Fukushuu)_

--Nine – To Darken the Heart (Revenge)--

"_Ninpo: _Sphere of Silence."

An explosion of movement, strangely silent, sent the young _shinobi_ reeling as his heavy wooden door burst into splinters, showering him with slivers. His back slammed against the wall a few feet behind him; the fluorescent light overhead flickered, and the young man coughed, feeling his wind being sucked from his lungs by the impact. He dove to the side and blindly flung two _shuriken_ through the cloud of dust, but saw them both quietly be deflected and drop to the floor. Prepared to hurl a _kunai_, he backpedaled quickly as twin swords darted through the haze with unbelievable speed. It was a testament to his skill that he blocked one's lethal stab with the _kunai_ and caught the other on his forehead protector wrapped around his left forearm.

In the confusion, he didn't realize that the blades had been dropped. Tenten slipped behind him through the smoke, wrapping his neck in the crook of her elbow. "Naptime," she hissed, though neither could hear it.

Ten brutal seconds later, he sagged in her grip, unconscious. Five seconds afterward, with a slight _pop_, her _ninjustu_ expired, and sound rushed back into the small room. Working with swift efficiency, she worked the thin wire she had already prepared and twisted his arms high behind his back, binding him tightly enough to dig deeply into his wrists. Even as he begun to stir, oxygen and blood returning to his brain, Tenten pushed him back against the hard bed at an angle so that none walking down the hall would see them. Only then did she see his face.

Like a punch to the gut, unmistakable grey eyes fluttered open to focus on her. No. Not Shuya. His brother. "Enrisu... -_kun_?" Grey eyes the exact same shade as his brother's, Mamoru Enrisu's distinctive gaze snapped up with startling hatred.

"_You_," he ground out, struggling futilely against his bonds. A thing trickle of blood flowed slowly down his bent arms behind him as the wire cut through his skin. "Come back to finish off what you started?"

The planned interrogator became the one being interrogated. His venom set her back on her heels. "What?"

"You killed my brother!"

"Yumiko killed your brother!" she screamed back, heart pounding. It was as if Shuya himself sat before her, accusing grey eyes stealing her soul. Her breath came in shallow gasps. "I avenged his death!"

Grey eyes glared daggers of pure hatred. "A death _you_ caused."

In the span of a single frenzied heartbeat, she was kneeling before him, _kodachi_ pressed to his throat. "I did no such thing."

No fear showed in his eyes despite the fact that death lay at his side. "If you Konoha fools had just followed Itatsu-_sama_'s plan, there would have been no need for Shuya-_niisan_ to be killed."

"_Itatsu...-sama?_" Tenten mouthed, these revelations coming too fast to fully comprehend.

Enrisu's glare was not tempered by sorrow. "You two dragged your feet, daring to assume Raikage-_sama_ would grant you, _foreigners_, an audience?" He snorted, heedless of the blade at his throat. "Don't make me laugh. There are people in this village who have never even seen his silhouette, not to mention his face. So a demonstration was needed to coerce you into action."

Fury bubbled through her, cutting the edge off her exhaustion. "So Shuya was in on your plan to capture Neji?!"

He snorted again. "No. He was a pawn."

Tightening her grip on the blade, the tiniest cut dripped blood. "How can you talk about your own brother like this? You fool!" Rage glimmered in her eyes, equal intensity blazing in both her brown and his grey. "Yumiko killed him!"

"Yume served her village, as do we all." Eyes allowing no further argument, he smirked. "Kill me."

"Take me to Neji!" she demanded, eyes sparking. She had not come so far to be denied by this boy.

"Kill me!" he challenged, his voice remarkably steady despite his reflexively shaking body. "I'll never betray my village." Remarkable resolve in a boy who couldn't be more than ten or twelve.

Frustration and exhaustion shortened her temper, and the flat of the other blade smacked him sharply across the face. "Tell me where you're keeping Neji!"

Yet more blood trickled from this newest cut, but Enrisu's eyes never wavered. "Kill me."

The Tenten of a few days ago would have balked at the notion of killing a helpless captive. The Tenten of an hour ago would have killed him instantly. This Tenten, the cold, determined, wounded, exhausted Tenten, simply smiled resignedly. "If you insist."

She reached up and yanked her forehead protector from her head, black silk band pooling in her hands. Enrisu didn't blink as she tied it around the back of his head, knotting it tightly and stuffing the ends roughly in his mouth, "to muffle your screams," she explained easily.

He snorted, and again, she was struck by the resolve in a boy so young. Unshaken remained her own resolve, and she only tightened her grip on Yumiko's blade. "You will tell me what you know." Cold certainty deadened her voice. "I'll start with your fingers." Loosening the wire just enough, she pulled his arms from behind his back so his hands rested on his lap. "I'd rather not do this. You are Shuya-_kun_'s brother, after all." If she'd had time to think, she would have vomited at the thought of what she was going to do, but her heartbeat remained steady as she rested the _kodachi_'s razor-sharp blade against the first knuckle of his pinky finger. "This is your last chance to take me to Neji before I start removing your fingers."

Grey eyes glared defiantly. Brown eyes stared back, dead. The tiniest pressure on the hilt drove the blade through the skin, grinding against bone. Blood welled at the edges of the cut. To his credit, the boy sublimated his scream even as tears gathered in his grey eyes and streamed down his face, dripping into the black cloth of her forehead protector.

She adjusted her grip. Bone splintered and blood flew. Enrisu's shriek pierced her ears as if he weren't gagged at all. Without remorse, without response, Tenten took the dismembered finger and folded it into his other hand, ignoring the spray of blood coating her neck and chest, soaking her already-stained funeral clothes even further.

His head lolled limply, and with her freed hand, she snatched up a handful of his dark hair and forced grey to meet brown. "I can heal you," she offered coolly. "If you just take me to Neji."

She released her grip, and he nodded weakly, eyes dull and no longer defiant. Swiftly, she removed one of her healing pills from the small bag she'd tied around her waist and forced it around the gag in his mouth. Plucking the uncleanly-severed digit from his palm, she lined it up with the slivers of bloodstained bone protruding from his hand. "Swallow it," she ordered.

As the boy swallowed the pill, blue Chakra visibly bubbled from the wound as bone began to reset itself and blood clotted, a thin layer of new pink skin growing back with remarkable speed. "A combination Blood and Food Pill," she explained, hoisting him to his feet and removing the gag.

"Scream, and I'll forget you agreed to help me."

-xXx-

"Everything." A giggle escaped Itatsu's lips as he strode swiftly down the corridor. "I'm losing everything." Nothing was funny, nothing was further from funny, but he kept laughing anyway. "Yumiko's dead. Konoha ninja are killing my men. We're doomed." Bright light shone from his glasses, revealing the madness finally unveiling itself. "My plan is failing. Raikage-_sama_ will be forced to name me traitor and conspirator." Another high-pitched giggle, then utter calm.

"I can salvage this. I have to," he muttered quickly, the pace of his steps increasing until he was almost running. "There's only one way to salvage this. Take Hyuuga and study him on my own, then report my findings. That way I won't be implicating my village and can-" Itatsu continued in this vein, muttering to himself, brilliant brain working on contingency after contingency. He would not allow his village to be under the thumb of Konoha any longer, and with a blow struck against the most prestigious family, the Hyuuga clan, he would have his revenge for his father's murder.

He could not allow anything less.

-xXx-

One pair of footsteps echoed unevenly down the rough-hewn stone corridor. "_Kuso_," he cursed softly. The wire had been stripped from his wrists, but any thought of action against his captor was immediately dismissed in the face of the throbbing pain in his hand. Enrisu, a sinking feeling yawning a hole in his gut, understood himself to be a traitor to his land, his village, and his brother. "_Kuso_." Shuya would never have given in, even under torture. As he walked, tears glimmered unshed in his grey eyes; tears that had nothing to do with his physical pain. "_Kuso!_"

Behind him, her footsteps nearly silent, followed the catalyst of his pain. Enrisu glared over his shoulder but said nothing.

Tenten tilted her head in response. "Have you something to say?" she questioned calmly.

Words tangled in his mouth, but he managed to finally grit out, "I will kill you for my brother."

"You're a fool, Enrisu-_kun_." Without missing a beat, her hand struck forward in a blur. A shark _smack_ rang through the corridors, and a red welt welled on his cheek from her open-handed slap. "Is your village really worth fighting for, a village that would kill your own brother?"

Enrisu's step faltered as his hand flew to his cheek. Inwardly, he reeled and felt that pit in his stomach gape wider. Without a word, he dropped his hand and turned around to continue walking.

Inside, even as she spoke, Tenten couldn't help but wince. Truly, was her own village that different? This entire episode had been initiated by the Hyuuga clan's slaying of Neji's father as a sacrifice to these very Cloud ninja.

_hyuuga-sama. _

_shuya-kun. _

_how many other countless unnamed lay dead as victims of this unending cycle of revenge?_

_me?_

She shrugged and shook her head. Perhaps she would be next, a victim of the revenge of the boy before her, or to another who cared for the girl once called Yumiko. Perhaps all _shinobi_ were really naught but tiny players in a massive epic entitled Revenge.

Perhaps.

"Here." Enrisu stopped at the edge of a corner as the corridor turned sharply to the right, his voice no louder than a whisper. "The ANBU are standing guard outside and inside."

"_Hai_," Tenten confirmed. She made no move to bind him, but as she locked away her soul once more in the face of duty, her expression was warning enough not to hinder her in any way.

And he wouldn't. Enrisu took a few steps backward, passing her as if unwilling to turn until he was sure she wouldn't look back, then turned and ran as if to escape a demon nipping at his heels. There was too much to consider, too much to question for him to interfere now.

On her knees, Tenten slid a small mirror ever so slowly around the corner, rotating it until she saw the guards of whom Enrisu had spoken. Only two, but they would have to be taken care of quickly and quietly. There was no margin for error now. Methodically, she stripped the insulating wrapping from the side of her right shoe and extracted two _senbon_- slender needles that would travel soundlessly as a near-invisible missile.

As she darted around the corner, two more victims of her revenge slumped to the ground, the slender hurled needles protruding from their necks like some bizarre hedgehog. Wraithlike, she drew her twin _kodachi_.

Her time was at hand.

The door was unlocked (_what need for locks in a compound of traitors?_), and she paused with her fingers on the knob. There was no time to delay, she knew; the longer she waited, the more likely those inside (_three total_) would sense the deaths of their companions and her foreign presence. If she miscalculated, the next player to fall upon the stage of this play called Revenge would be the man she loved.

One breath in. Exhale.

She dropped the blade in her right hand and used that freed hand to twist the knob, forcing the door inward. As the _kodachi_ clattered to the ground, she dove low to catch it on its bounce and rolled into the room. One glance was all she had time for as she smoothly landed. Neji sat, bound to a chair and barely conscious, if that. A woman with the mask of ANBU knelt before him, unstirring, deep in meditation. Before her stood another ANBU _shinobi_, _kunai_ already in hand.

The final momentum of her roll gave her more than enough speed to leap high into the air to swipe across with a jump-roundhouse kick. The motion was easily predictable, and the ANBU man snorted with contempt as he ducked beneath her foot.

Tenten smiled, and as she began to fall toward the floor, she brought her blades together. The edges of the _kodachi _sang a sharp, metallic note as one smashed against the other, and the _shinobi_ collapsed, clutching his ears and screaming. In midair, Tenten flipped around and landed blade-first, driving both weapons deep into the stricken man's chest, through his armor as if it were mere foam. All executed in a manner of seconds.

"_Yume-san no... bugu_," he stuttered, blood frothing from his mouth- Yume-_san_'s weapons. And then, his final line in the epic uttered, his only witness his killer, his part ended and he lay still.

One left.

Unbearable rage flowed through her at the sight of Neji hooked up to machines like some kind of testing animal. A hoarse growl burst from her mouth, and in three quick strides, Tenten was behind the meditating woman. In one swift motion, she grabbed the woman's long, loose hair and brutally yanked her back, exposing her throat. Behind the mask, the woman's eyes flew open, but before she could react, Tenten slashed her blade once and threw the body aside. A gruesome second mouth, the slit extended along the woman's neck; as she fell as if in slow-motion, blood spewed the air, coating Tenten's face like a crimson curtain, an outward manifestation of her fury. The body landed with a wet thud, the blue-and-white rat mask bouncing away from her face with a sharp crack.

"Neji!" Tenten dropped the _kodachi_, the hilts all but peeling from her hands, sticky with blood, and skidded over, tearing the leads from his chest. Softly beeping monitors flatlined with a devil's shriek, red lights flashed irregularly, drowning out the harsh white fluorescent with its bloody glow. Through all the chaos and cacophony, the young man didn't stir. Heart pounding more fiercely than it had during any of the battles, she ripped the rope from around Neji's body and threw her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest. "Please," she whispered. "Don't leave me like this." Anger, irrepressible anger stole through her as she began to devise the best plan to massacre the entire compound if he...

The hastily tied knot of her blood-soaked forehead protector started to slip. Tenten made no move to catch it as it plummeted toward the ground.

-xXx-

_"Tenten?" Neji spun himself around in the darkness. "Where are you?" The constant needling prod to use his Byakugan had been cut off, but gone too was her voice. Even as he drifted, the blackness began to lighten, dissolving to grey and then blinding white. He screamed as the glow burned his eyes as if he might actually be blinded. Neji refused to close his eyes, refused to give in, and at long last, he managed to suck in a breath._

His eyes snapped open, and white faded to flashing red. Barely aware of his own actions, his hand darted forward and caught the falling forehead protector. Neji blinked rapidly, trying to bring his light-starved eyes into focus; his surroundings registered in the back of his mind, but all his attention centered on the young woman before him.

Face and body blood-smeared, clothing ragged and dirty, Tenten stared at him with something akin to shock. "You're..." her voice failed, throat working invisibly as all plans shattered and were locked away in a dark corner of her mind.

Neji spent a moment just studying her face and manner, concern etching lines into his face. "Are you hurt?" he said finally.

As if only just realizing her sorry appearance, Tenten touched two fingers to her face. The tips came away red, and she stared blankly. "I'm..." The noise of the flatlining monitors faded into the background.

_yumiko enrisu anbu no older than me murdered slashed blood so much blood staining-_

Bile rising in her throat, she pushed back to arms length, hands pressed to her mouth, eyes wide. "I did..." A muffled scream filtered through her twined fingers.

_murderer_

Horror chilled her bones as she stared at the blood coating her body.

_revenge_

_killer_

_blood_

And she screamed again, a panicked shriek that echoed from the stone around them.

"Tenten?" Neji dove forward to catch her as she sunk to the ground, her hands clasped to her mouth.

_blood_

Her entire body trembled uncontrollably, eyes wide and terrified as she gazed blankly at the face of her most recent victim- the ANBU woman, only a few years older than her. Her

_blood!_

flowed along the ground more slowly than before, soaking into the unforgiving stone- no beating heart remained to pump it faster, driving the life-giving fluid from her lifeless body, lifeless eyes accused her.

_murderer_

At a loss, Neji could only hold her close, arms wrapped protectively around her as if to physically ward off whatever demons assailed her. "Tenten," he murmured, lips in her hair. "We have to leave this place."

Tenten didn't, couldn't answer; frozen but for uncontrollable shaking, she had trapped herself in a world of her own creation, trapped upon this stage entitled Revenge.

_scared_

_scared_

_scared!!_

"Tenten!" he shouted, hoping to shock her out of this- this whatever it was. Tears spilled unchecked down her face, carving lines through the

_blood_

sprayed the air once again as Neji caught a whisper of a presence outside the door and deftly spun her from harm's way, catching four _shuriken_ in his arms. The metal thudded into bare flesh with a sickening crunch, and he grunted from the pain. No Chakra had risen to his call, but as he glared at the young man standing opposite them, he barely felt the pain. "You," he hissed.

Standing there, wheezing for breath, Itatsu smirked triumphantly. "Don't move, Hyuuga," he warned, more _shuriken_ ready for a second throw. "Whichever one of you moved will die." He pointed with his other hand. "And she doesn't seem like she's able to defend herself." Shifting his aim ever so slightly, he lined up on the _kunoichi_. The redhead snorted. "Pathetic," he stated. "After carving a swath through my best-trained _shinobi_, she collapses at the realization."

Adjusting his glasses, he took one step forward. "I guess it's true that Konoha ninja are weaklings with no knowledge of what it's like to actually kill a fellow human being." The flashing red light shone from his glasses. "Try and kill me, Hyuuga, and she dies." He took another step forward. "All we want is to study the _Byakugan_. If you don't resist, neither of you will be harmed."

"That's what this is all about? _Byakugan_?" Neji eased Tenten to the floor and slowly rose to his feet, yanking the embedded _shuriken_ from his arm and dropping them to the ground, letting the blood drip freely to the floor. "Who in your group was responsible for the death of my father?! _What did you bastards do with his body!?_"

The other boy's face clouded in confusion, then cleared. "You mean the other worthless branch family member? We burned it."

"_Bastard_," Neji hissed, lunging forward, regardless of the _shuriken_ Itatsu was only too prepared to use.

Then the red-haired boy coughed and stared down in disbelief at the tip of a _kunai_ protruding from his chest. Blood dribbled from his mouth. He blinked once, twice, and managed to turn around to look behind him, revealing a white-faced and trembling Enrisu. "For my brother," the grey-eyed boy whispered.

As if in slow motion, Itatsu fell forward, body tearing free of the _kunai_ with a wet snick.

The final player of the epic exited, and the curtain fell.

**A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this final chapter. All we have left is an epilogue to tie up the rest of the loose ends, and then we can call this complete.**

**Thanks to: **_Merciless Ruby, siriusju, iAtRI, KazeRose, JanuaryFriend, _and _Kratos Wilder_. Thanks, everyone!


	11. Epilogue – Raikiri no Yume

**Translation Note- **_**shinigami **_**can be literally translated as "God of Death", while **_**nee-san**_** means older sister. **

Epilogue – _Raikiri no Yume_

--Lightning Blade's Dream--

_Beep. Beep. Beep._ The heartbeat monitor's steady cadence echoed through the stark white room. A slight breeze moved the curtains from the window silently, letting the red sunset alight upon her face, serene, untroubled, hair loose and splayed about her. The sheets lay to the side, kicked away in a fit of nightmare, but now she slept peacefully on her back, one hand on the bandages wrapped around her stomach, the other held loosely by someone else.

Neji sat beside her, his uncomfortable visitor's chair scooted as close to her bed as it could be. Bandages similar to hers wrapped around his other arm, resting on his lap. His grip on her hand was slack and his eyes were closed, sleeping deeper than he had for many days. The door to her room slid open, and the nurse entered to check the monitors. The white-clad woman stopped and smiled at the sight of the two _shinobi_. It was against all codes and regulations for the young man to be there, but she only went about her business as silently as possible, then left as quietly as she came.

-xXx-

Alone, wheezing, gasping for breath, a red-haired boy clawed his way across the rough-hewn stone floor. "I won't... die here," he growled, ripping off his cracked, useless glasses and flinging them away. One hand scrabbled to force him, staggering to his feet, the other pressed against his chest to futilely stop the flow of blood, knowing the main wound was on his back. "I won't die... like _her_," he hissed, using his words as a litany to stand. Yumiko's face refused to free itself from his mind's eye, and he nearly fell as a fresh wave of agony flooded through him, stumbling against the doorjamb. Itatsu closed his eyes and rested against the solid wood for a moment. "_Kuso!_" he growled, forcing himself upright again.

A chill wind swept through him, freezing him, eyes widening. He was deep underground. There was no wind.

"_I-ya-su_," emerging almost from the stones itself, a white-clad man materialized before him, mispronouncing his name. "You've failed. Horrendously. My lightning blades have all perished, and your dream is gone."

For the first time in his life, Itatsu did not look away as his Raikage stepped forward. And in his leader's face, he saw death in human flesh. This, then, was a _shinigami_.

A flash of steel, and he collapsed, unable to move, his lifeblood draining away faster than before, his own heartbeat sending him to his death. "No," terrified, all he could see was her face. "Stay away!" A scream burst anguished from his throat. "_Yume nee-san!_"

-xXx-

_"Tenten!" He shook her shoulders roughly, then gently forced her face up to meet his eyes. "We have to leave this place." Frustration warring with concern, he barely noticed Enrisu make his way across the dungeon room to shut off the beeping and flashing monitors. "Please, you have to listen to me!"_

_Her lips moved soundlessly as she pressed her fingernails into her blood-soaked face, eyes wide and terrified. Her mouth moved silently several times as she gazed into his eyes, then her gaze dulled as if to block out everything. Eyelids flickering, she fainted and sagged in his grip._

"_What's wrong with her?" Enrisu came around behind Neji and crouched down to be at his level. _

_Neji shook his head slowly, cradling her body in his arms. "She's in some kind of shock. I don't know what could have triggered it."_

_His left hand clenched into a tight fist, Enrisu was silent for a moment as if trying to reconcile this broken girl with the bloodthirsty kunoichi who had hacked of his own finger. "Blood," he said finally._

"_Blood?"_

"_Neji-san..." he hesitated, "I should tell you about what's been going on since you were imprisoned."_

Tenten's eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright, breath coming in gasps and disheveled hair flying around her. A sudden yelp of pain burst from her mouth and doubled her over at the movement, her eyes squeezed shut against the flare of agony in her belly. As she tried to press both hands to her bandaged wound, a resistance and warmth against her other hand paused her and forced one eye open. "Neji?" Incredulence working against pain, she looked over at him.

The young man looked as though he hadn't changed clothes for several days, his face still dirt-smudged and his right sleeve rolled up to the elbow, his entire forearm wrapped round with bandages. Thousands of questions swirled in her mind, but she couldn't bring herself to wake him. Secure in the knowledge that he was with her, she laid back against the pillow and tightened her grip on his hand, feeling his own fingers reflexively tighten around hers. Tenten closed her eyes and knew Neji would be there to protect her from her demons.

-xXx-

_I hope this finds you and Tenten-san well. Everything has been resolved to our satisfaction. Most of the Village Hidden in the Clouds remains unaware of your coming, and those few who do know nothing of the circumstances of which you were forced to flee. I do not know how Raikage-sama will choose to twist the meaning of what happened, but I will now tell you the truth. Your Hokage can do what she will with this information._

_The purpose of our group was to capture a member of the Hyuuga clan and extract from him the secret of the Byakugan. Itatsu is dead, so only Raikage-sama can say what our plans were once that was accomplished. Yes, that is possibly the most important piece of information I can impart to you. Raikage-sama... no, the Raikage, was involved in this plan. He was fully aware of everything going on here. Do with this information what you will, Neji-san. This is all I have to report, so this will be the only message I send; it would be risky to send more._

_And, Neji-san, I have enclosed something you may find valuable. You may recall the funeral given to my brother. Inside, with this letter, I have enclosed the diamond that was formed from your father's ashes. I am bound by oath to speak no further of this ceremony. I know this is no consolation for everything my village has done to you and yours, but I can only hope that this will allow you to forgive me for my actions._

_Sayonara._

"It's signed Mamoru Enrisu." Tsunade's sharp gaze snapped up over the paper. "Do you trust this boy?" The morning sun glinted from her blonde hair and illuminated the papers strewn about her desk.

Neji stared into the diamond in his hand. "I do." Slipping the stone into his pocket, he forced himself to meet her eyes. "If you have nothing further on the subject of my report...?"

"Dismissed." Tsunade waved a hand, and the young man bowed and exited.

"Tsunade-_sama_... what does this mean for Konoha?" Shizune bit her lip. "Will we go to war?"

The Hokage steepled her fingers and gazed over them hard. "It's not up to us. The Raikage will make the first move."

_-"Are you going to be safe?" Neji stood opposite Enrisu, one hand on the mane of a horse. Tenten was already astride the magnificent beast; Neji had lifted her there mere moments ago, as she still showed no sign of waking._

"_Someone needs to stay here and continue investigating this," was his response. The horses hooves crunched against the snowy ground as it snorted, ready to go. "I'll send a message by hawk. There is no evidence I helped you, so I should be alright if you go now."_

"_Why are you doing this? For Konoha?"_

"_Iya." Enrisu shook his head and turned on his heel. "For my brother." -_

**--_owari desu_--**

**A/N: Done! Finally! This went through several drafts over the last month, most of which had Tenten in various states of mental collapse. For those who are interested, I have a deleted scene from this epilogue that was never finished. Feel free to check it out on my livejournal, or if for whatever reason you can't go on livejournal, PM me with your email address and I'll send it via email.**

**Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope to see some of you in my next work "_Itsuka_" ("Someday"), where I explore the concept of what would have happened if Sakura had followed Sasuke and joined Orochimaru herself. I have no idea if this has already been done, but I'd really like to play with it myself.**

**Thanks to: **_Merciless Ruby, iAtRI, mysterious-bluerose, KazeRose, DarkerSpirit, JanuaryFriend _and everyone who read and reviewed the whole story. **_Arigato gozaimashita!_**


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